Parallelism
by Celestial Chaos
Summary: Chris, when on a demon hunt with his brother Wyatt, ends up saving an innocent who later becomes his charge. But things between them change over time, because Chris realizes that being so serious all the time is a real downer. ChrisxOC. Slash.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This story came about from...too many hours of watching Charmed. I've actually had it completed for quite a while, but since just having come back to I haven't uploaded it yet. I've got others, too, so hopefully people like this one as much as they do the others. Now, this story (as well as the others), was written BEFORE I found out about the The Book of Three, which apparently tells you the ages of the Charmed Ones' kids and all of that...Some are mentioned here and there, but all are between the ages of 10-17 (It's not really that important). This story takes place in the year 2025. As always, I'd love to get reviews with your thoughts on the piece :-D

* * *

Chris had always been told just how similar he was to his late aunt Prue. In fact, he had heard it so many times over the years that it pretty much had lost its meaning, and whenever it came up he would reply with a dismissive wave of his hand or a shake of his head. He even resembled her in a lot of ways when it came to appearance as well, what with his dark hair, somewhat pale complexion and his light, bluish green eyes. 

So he wondered, then, if he was so much like his aunt Prue, why was he having so much trouble getting through to his brother, who was supposedly very similar to their mother? From what he knew about her and their aunt, the two of them seemed to get along just fine, and they tended to agree with each other on things. Perhaps there was more to it than he thought there was.

They were in the attic of the Halliwell manor, Chris thumbing through the Book of Shadows to find the name of the warlock they were looking for, while Wyatt attempted to scry for him using one of their crystals. They had been in this scene so many times before, and, like a lot of those times, they were butting heads on the way that they were going to find the person.

"You can't just _scry_ for him without having something that belongs to him, Wyatt, you know that," Chris said. He furrowed his brow.

Wyatt ignored his brother for a moment, just twirling the crystal slowly over the map. "God, Chris, would you stop it? I've done it before, I can do it again."

"Yeah, and you did it with someone you'd already _seen_. That's the big difference here. We're just going off of what we read in the paper."

It would have probably helped a lot if there had been a photo in the newspaper with the person in question, but there hadn't been. Chris and Wyatt were attending the same college that their Aunt Phoebe had, though both were studying entirely different subjects. Currently they were ignoring homework for the more important issues: demon fighting. There had been two murders on the campus in the past month, one at the beginning and one toward the end, both of which had happened to witches. And, neither Wyatt nor Chris seemed at all able to figure out who was doing it, because the clues left behind were far from helpful.

"God, I wish they had just left something behind," Chris muttered darkly. "It would be so much easier."

"It would be a lot easier if you would just be quiet so I can concentrate." Wyatt shot a look over his shoulder at his brother, who just made a face at him and moved away from the book. Wyatt continued to try and scry for the warlock, but to no avail. The crystal wasn't landing anywhere, and he didn't feel any sort of pull in any direction on the map. A few moments later he finally put the crystal down and groaned in frustration.

"Told you," Chris said.

"Oh, just look for him in the _Book_. You didn't find anything based on what we got from the last one?"

"No. At least, nothing definite. It could be any of them in the _Book_ from what we saw…could be any lower level demon, or a warlock, or whatever. Some power-stealer who's going after inexperienced witches and killing them."

Wyatt sighed. "Well, we can at least narrow it down to the ones that we know mom and them haven't vanquished…" He moved toward the _Book of Shadows_, brushing his fingers over the page it was on. It was open to one that talked about lower level demons and common ways to kill them. "If it _is_ a low-level warlock, which it probably is, then I don't think they'd be in here…"

"In which case we're right back where we started." Chris threw his hands up. "Let's just go back to the scene and see if there's some kind of pattern."

"Hard to get a pattern with just two people," Wyatt said. "We could always just try and scry for witches on the campus, if that's where the guy's focusing specifically?"

"…Do you _know_ how many there could be on campus? Actually magical and just practicing?" Chris asked. He couldn't believe that Wyatt would suggest such a thing. "It—"

"—Okay, okay, so it wasn't such a good idea. Jeez, Chris, calm down. We'll figure it out. Don't get so worked up over it."

"I've got stuff to do for school, Wyatt, and I need time to do it. I can't just chase some warlock or demon or whatever without knowing who, or what, they are, and where they're going to attack next." Chris rubbed his eyes. "I'm going back to the scenes to see if there's any similarity." Without giving his brother any warning, he orbed out of the attic.

Wyatt only groaned against in frustration, following after his brother.

When the two of them reappeared at the last crime scene, the only visible light was that coming from the moon outside. It wasn't very much, just enough for the two of them to see one another. Chris moved toward the window and looked out it while Wyatt went over to the door to check and see if it was locked. When everything checked out safely, the two of them began looking around the room. The police had already cleared the scene, so there was no reason to assume anyone would be popping in anytime soon to check for prints. Both of them searched for anything that they thought might provide some kind of hint or clue as to a possible pattern.

"Nothing," Wyatt said after a few minutes, sounded irritated. "I can't think—"

"Wyatt," Chris suddenly interjected, "What floor are we on?"

"…I dunno. The second? Third?" He went over to the window, which overlooked a courtyard that the three dormitories shared. "Yeah, the second, I was right." The older one turned toward his brother. "Why?"

Chris didn't say anything at first, moving toward the window beside the other. He looked across the way, pointing at the room just opposite them on the other side of the courtyard. "…Wasn't the other murder in that room across the way, on the same floor?"

Wyatt blinked. "…Maaaybe…I don't remember." He, too, looked across the way at the room that Chris was pointing at.

"Check the room number on this room."

Just when he was about to disagree, Chris gestured toward the door. Wyatt made a face, but did it anyways. He checked carefully, so as to not let anyone know that they were in there. "We're in 203."

"I think that one was, too," the younger one mused. "Stay here." Pausing momentarily, Chris then orbed out of the room and headed toward the other scene. When he arrived across the way he brought his face close to the window, and he could see his older brother standing in the room he had just been in.

After a brief check of the room number he orbed back, and rubbed his hands together. "You know what I didn't notice last time? These rooms are set up exactly the same…right down to the angle of the bed and the dresser. These are tiny ass rooms."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. "So…what you're saying is that the demon or warlock is attacking people based on the fact that they're in room 203, and in these dormitories?"

Chris waved his hand. "I know it's not the best thing to go off of, but it's all we've got for now besides the fact that we know they were both stabbed by an athame, and that they were witches. What do we know about the other dormitory's room 203?"

"Nothing. Probably just some person living in there, is all. Should we keep a stake out, or what?"

"Might be a good idea. It's…little to go off of, but it's worth a shot." Chris rubbed his hands together.

"A _long_ shot. What're the odds that there's going to be three actual magical witches in the same room in each of the dormitories?"

"Yeah, well, if you have anything better, I'm all ears…"

Wyatt stayed quiet.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fuck, I'm gonna be late…"

A boy of about twenty-one years of age, with an average height and build and dirty blonde hair was standing in his living room, looking somewhat pressed. His name was Nathan Jones, and a student living at the local college. He brushed his hands through his short hair and looked at himself in the mirror. Class was in about five minutes, but from his dorm room it usually took him about ten to get there. If he ran, he might chop a little bit of time off…though not enough to make him on time. And since his professor was a jerk and locked the door to the classroom once the lesson started, he had no idea how in the world he was going to get there in time.

Darting out of his bathroom he went toward his desk to grab his bag. He had his handle on the doorknob, just about to head out, when he realized he had forgotten his wallet and his keys, both of which usually sat on his nightstand.

"Damn it," he cursed irritably. He dropped his bag and headed toward his bed. His wallet was there on his nightstand, but his keys weren't. "Where did I put them?" he asked himself aloud. Nathan shot around his apartment, looking on the desk, the counter, in his bathroom, and beside his bookshelf and dresser. They weren't anywhere to be found. "Damn it!" he cursed again, but louder.

He couldn't figure out what in the world he had done with them, and he was running out of time even worse than he had been before. Nathan stopped in his kitchen, looking all around him. They couldn't be found. He was going to miss his class, and his professor was going to mark him down for being absent_ again_.

But then he began to feel light headed, and suddenly, everything went black. When he came back to, he found himself staring at a toilet, of all things. Nathan rubbed his eyes and looked around him. He was standing in a stall, but he couldn't be sure which one it was. And he wasn't even sure why in the world he was standing in one in the first place. Hesitantly, he reached for the handle of the door and pulled it open, stepping out into the bathroom. He recognized it right away as the bathroom near his classroom.

"What the hell am I doing he—"

Before he was able to finish that thought Nathan began to feel lightheaded again. He stumbled back against the stall door and blacked out. It only lasted a moment, and soon he found himself right back where he had been before, in his kitchen. He rubbed his forehead and his eyes once more, completely surprised.

"…I was wondering if this was going to happen," he murmured to himself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Wyatt put his head in his hands and almost groaned, but instead he whispered quietly to his brother, "We've been here for over an hour, and no one's attacked. We can't keep hiding in this room. Someone's gonna come here to pick up this girl's stuff and take it home…and if we're here when that happens…"

Chris waved his hand quickly at his brother to hush him. They were staking out in the room they had been in a few nights before, keeping a watch over the other room 203 in the third dormitory surrounding the courtyard. Lights were on and there was a silhouette of someone sitting at the desk; everything seemed all right, as it had been the entire time that the two boys had been there. They shared a look with one another before Chris returned his attention to the window.

"What if he's out there right now killing other innocents, Chris?" Wyatt asked. "What are we supposed to do then?"

"If it's so much of a damn bother to sit here and wait, then why don't you go and scry for the warlock again?"

"You know what? I don't know what's gotten into you, but you've been a real pill lately." Wyatt stood up, putting one hand on his hip and pointing with the other at Chris. "This is supposed to be something we're doing together. You know, like mom wants? Or would you rather do it with Melinda? I'm sure she'd be more than _happy_ to help, if you can pull her away from her friends for more than five minutes."

Chris stared over his shoulder at his brother. "Are you gonna sit there and bitch, or are you gonna help me?"

Wyatt almost growled in response. "I'm not gonna sit here when all we've got is the dumb long shot you came up with."

"Oh yeah? You didn't seem so against it when I came up with it a couple of nights ago."

"Yeah, because I was tired of arguing! Like I am right now." Wyatt shook his head. "I'm going home. I doubt anything's going to happen. And if it does, I'll be damn surprised." Not even waiting for another word, Wyatt orbed out of the dorm room.

"Good riddance," Chris said with a roll of his eyes, returning his attention to the window. Without Wyatt there to distract him he could focus better on the task at hand, which was going to probably take all night at this rate. The last murder had happened late into the night, and even though he had class in the morning, Chris knew that a person's life was more important than working on logarithms.

For a while, nothing happened. The young Halliwell continued to stare out the window, his focus lessening with each and every passing minute. He found himself feeling just a little tired, and so he rested his forehead against the windowpane. Soon thereafter he found his eyelids feeling heavy, and they slowly shut themselves, until he felt like he might just doze off…

All of a sudden, there was a muffled crashing sound that came not too far away. Chris staggered for a moment once he moved away from the window, and he saw the silhouette that had been sitting at the desk flash by, and another one appear. He was right.

Wyatt was going to eat his words.

Despite having never been in the room, Chris orbed there as quickly as he could. When he appeared he saw the innocent slamming the door shut to the bathroom, and the warlock preparing to chase after him. Clearly the warlock wasn't expecting interference, because he stopped suddenly and looked at Chris in surprise.

"Surprised to see me?" he said, pointing his finger at him before quickly whipping it toward the desk. The warlock went flying and hit the wall, and he fell on top of the desk with a loud grunt. This was neither the time nor the place for a fight, and Chris knew that if they did fight, it was going to ruin this kid's place, and the important thing right now was saving him. Plus, there would be interference from outside sources…

Since he could hear the other guy fumbling with locking the door, Chris just grabbed the doorknob to the bathroom and shoved it open. He felt pressure against it that lasted only for a moment, and after he made his way inside he grabbed hold of the other's arm.

"What's going on!?" he yelped.

As Chris began to orb them away, he said, "I'm saving you."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: I'm happy to see that people like this story so much so far :) I had a lot of fun writing this. This was actually my first fiction of Charmed (the other ones I've written came later, after another story I had written that I'll be putting up later). Thanks for all the well wishings with the story:-D

* * *

Upon orbing back to the manor, Chris managed to get them into the living room before the innocent began fighting him to let him go. He stumbled back and landed on the couch, which seemed to make him freak out even more. 

"Oh God," he said quickly, fumbling around to try and stand up. All he managed to do was get himself sitting up on the couch, where he felt at his side. When he pulled up his shirt there was a cut across his skin. It wasn't very deep but it was bleeding. He winced at the sight of it.

"You gonna be okay?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow before turning to call for his brother. "Wyatt? Wyatt!" He lowered his voice. "My brother can heal your wound, don't worry."

"Chris?" The sound of his mother, Piper's, voice came from within the kitchen. There was the sound of feet moving across the ground, and she set the basket of laundry she had near the staircase before she move into the living room. "I'm gonna need you to fold those clothes before—" Piper paused when she saw the boy sitting on her couch. "…And who is this?"

"An innocent," Chris explained. "The one I—and Wyatt—" his brother appeared on the staircase when he spoke, "figured was going to be attacked next by the warlock."

"Well, I'll be damned," Wyatt said. "You were right."

"There'll be time for that later," Piper said. She pointed to the innocent, who was gripping his side and making a slight face. "We need you to heal him."

"How did you—"

"Oh please, Chris, like I haven't been doing this for decades. I know what a hurt innocent looks like." Piper chortled, and gave her younger son a knowing smile. Patting his arm, she gestured to the laundry basket by the stairs. "When you get him all squared away I want you to fold those for me. You were supposed to this morning but you left too quickly."

"Yes, Mom. I'll get to it sometime tonight."

"_Tonight_," she echoed, and with a look that meant serious business, Piper turned around and headed back toward the stairs, which she went up and disappeared, calling after Leo in the process.

While Chris and Piper talked Wyatt had healed the guy, who was now gripping his side and looked positively surprised.

"You know," he said, "I'd…heard stories about whitelighters and stuff from my dad, but I didn't know you guys could actually _do_ that."

Wyatt and Chris shared a look with one another. It was Chris who spoke. "So was your dad a witch?"

"Well, that's kind of the keyword there…was." The boy shifted on the couch. "He had powers, but he wanted to have a normal life with my mom, so he bound them for her. He never really liked them much. But that was after they had me. I mean, my dad bound my powers, too, before they showed up, so I never really actually got to use 'em. I just knew I was supposed to have 'em…"

"So…wait." Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "You mean your dad and you both had powers, but he bound them because he wanted to have a normal life? He can't still be alive, can he? Warlocks don't come after you unless there's a power for them to steal."

"No, he, uh, he died just a few months ago, actually. Old age."

"His dad dying must have undone the binding," Chris mused aloud. "Kind of like what happened with mom and everyone when Grams died."

"What's your power?" Wyatt asked suddenly. "If it's taken this long to show up…"

The innocent on the couch had a thoughtful look on his face. "I think my dad's was called Astral Projection. So it's probably that, or at least some form of it. I used it earlier this week by mistake. I was late for class, and all of the sudden, I found myself outside of my apartment and in a bathroom. Then I was back in my apartment again. I blacked out in between, so I know it wasn't just some…teleporting thing."

"Can powers take that long to show up?" Chris asked, though mostly to himself. "Wyatt, go look that up in the _Book of Shadows_, will you?"

"Yeah…yeah, no problem." Wyatt looked upward and quickly disintegrated into the little white-blue orbs of light, transporting himself into the attic.

The boy looked somewhat surprised again. "Heard about that, too, but I didn't really ever see it in action…"

"Why would your dad bind your guys' powers, but not keep from telling you about magic?" Chris looked confused. "It doesn't make any sense…"

"I don't know. And…my name's Nathan, by the way."

"Huh?"

"My name. It's Nathan. I'm not just 'some innocent'." He smiled a little.

"Oh." Chris furrowed his brow. "Well, I forgot to ask your name. Sorry. I'm Chris."

"Nice to meet ya." Nathan stuck his hand out and extended it to Chris, who took it and shook it as firmly as he could, despite the fact that he was somewhat distracted.

"That demon's gonna be coming back. So we need to get you prepared for it, and make sure we can kill him next time. I just wanted to get you out of there before anything else was destroyed. He'll probably go back to your dorm to try and kill you, so I think that you should stay here for right now. I'm sure mom and dad'll understand."

"Well, thanks. But I, uh, still need to get my homework from there. Class tomorrow, and all."

"Yeah, I have class, too. Right now, though, that's really not all that important. Getting this warlock out of the way first is the top priority." Chris gestured toward the stairs. "Come on, we're gonna go up to the attic and help my brother find out what he can."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Because protecting Nathan had sort of fallen on Chris' shoulders (as Wyatt had left), Wyatt decided to give up his bed for him and sleep on the couch. If something happened, Chris knew that he would be in the room and would be able to orb Nathan to safety. But with the minor cloaking ability that he had begun to practice with from his whitelighter heritage, and with the magical safety of the manor, there probably wouldn't be anything to worry about.

Still, Chris didn't sleep much that night. Every time he felt himself dozing off he would smack or pinch himself to keep from falling asleep. He wasn't going to let this innocent die like the last two had. They didn't deserve it. When the morning finally came he had somewhat large, dark circles under his eyes and he felt kind of delirious. Chris was a heavy sleeper—one had to be living in the manor—and usually he got about eight hours. He was running on empty fuel.

That morning, Chris took Nathan downstairs for breakfast. The manor smelled of bacon, eggs and pancakes, all of which were family favorites. When the two boys stepped into the kitchen Piper greeted them with a good morning from over her shoulder, gesturing for them to take a seat at the table, where Leo, Melinda and Wyatt all were. Nathan thanked her and took a seat but Chris moved around the other side of the island to the coffee pot. He needed coffee, and badly.

"You know that stuff isn't good for you," Piper said to him. "And I've been meaning to get rid of it for a while…hmm." She flipped the eggs with her spatula, then stared at the coffee pot. "Maybe this afternoon."

"I need coffee," Chris said, rubbing his eyes. "I was on watch last night. Just making sure the demon didn't attack." He ignored his mother's stare, pouring some coffee into a cup he had grabbed from the shelf above it.

"You can't get rid of it anyways, Piper," Leo chimed in. "You know I like having coffee with breakfast."

Piper smirked faintly. "It's not good for you, either. And when you cook breakfast, you can decide what you have to drink. You need to drink more water, anyways. That's why you've got it in your glass."

Leo only chuckled and shook his head. Things were quiet for just a moment, while Piper put the eggs on their plates and Chris sipped at his coffee. Nathan sat there at the table kind of awkwardly, Melinda staring at him with a polite smile, but the silence was broken by Wyatt.

"So, what's on your agenda today, Dad?"

That seemed to start up the conversation again. Chris noticed that Melinda was staring at Nathan, and he moved toward the table, still sipping at his coffee. "He's an innocent."

"I wondered why Wyatt was sleeping on the couch. But I gotta admit, it was nice not waking up to his loud snoring." When Wyatt tried to interject Melinda just laughed. "I can hear you all the way through the walls! You're a nightmare. I don't know how Chris stands it."

"You get used to it," Chris said, as an amused, but tired sort of smile appeared on his face. He took another sip of his coffee. "Wyatt, I'm gonna skip out on classes today and go back with Nathan and see if we can't kill the warlock that's chasing after him. Were you going to help?"

Before Wyatt could open his mouth, Piper said in a very tight sort of tone, "You're not skipping out on any more classes this week. You've already missed several, and you _weren't_ fighting demons then."

Chris looked a little uncomfortable. "How'd you know about that?"

Piper raised an eyebrow. "I'm your mother. You think I don't know what you do?"

"A_nyways_," Chris said, giving his mother a look, "_after_ classes I'm gonna go and track the guy down. He's sure to have left something behind at Nathan's dorm for us to scry for him. That way we can get him."

"Can't," Wyatt said. "I've got a class this afternoon and then one tonight." He looked at Piper with a grin on his face. "Gotta be a good boy and go."

"That's why I said _after _classes. But fine, I'll do it on my own." The grin fell off of Wyatt's face then, which Chris ignored. "Nathan—"

"—Can stay here for the day," Piper broke in. "Going back to his dorm is going to be too dangerous if the warlock's after him. I'll keep an eye on him, and I'll get him excused."

"How?" Chris asked, blinking.

"Not your worry. You need to get to class. You've been missing too much math. Any more, and you're going to be too far behind."

Melinda laughed, but Chris ignored that, too. Instead he took a seat at his spot, looking over his breakfast. He wasn't all that hungry, seeing as he stayed up all night, and so he just picked at it, eating a piece of bacon here and a small portion of his eggs there. He didn't even touch the pancakes. His mother always made them just right, but he didn't think that he could handle any of them right now. Maybe later, for lunch or something.

He turned to Nathan, who was in the middle of thanking Piper for the breakfast. "So, I'll go grab your homework for you, then bring it back here. If Mom's gonna get you off of classes for the day, I guess it gives you extra time to do it, right?"

"Well, there's classes tomorrow," Nathan said, "but yeah, that's cool. Thanks. It's gonna be on my desk. The guy didn't destroy it, did he?"

"Don't think so," Chris said. "I threw him on it, but I think he just stumbled down it and hit the floor. I'm just hoping nobody called the police or anything from the noises…"

"We'd have heard about it in the paper," Leo said. "So I think we're in the clear."

"Well, in that case, no reason to worry much." Chris finished off his coffee, looking to Wyatt. He sent a look to the clock on the wall, and he got up quickly. "Shit." Piper gave him a look. "Sorry. Crap. Whatever. I've got class in about twenty minutes. I can't grab your stuff. Wyatt, will you do it?"

"Yeah, sure. Room 203, right?"

Chris smirked. "Yeah, room 203. There _was_ a pattern."

Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll grab it." After finishing off a piece of toast and another slice of bacon he said, "You wanna come with me, Nathan?" The other boy agreed, and so Wyatt gripped his hand, orbing the two of them to the dorm room to grab Nathan's homework.

Melinda, after Chris had mentioned the time, was already up and grabbing her things. She gave Leo and Piper hugs and then darted out the back door, on her way to school. That left just Chris and his parents, but he didn't plan on staying very long. He had things to do as well, and if he didn't go to class, his mother was probably going to kill him.

"All right, I'm gonna go grab my things and then get to class, too. I'll be back later this afternoon. See you guys."

"Love you," Piper said, to which Chris replied with a dismissive sort of 'uh huh' before orbing out. Now that she and Leo were alone, she pushed her food around her plate before she stood up and began walking around the table to pick up everyone else's plates. Half the food she had made was still uneaten, which was bothersome. She scraped it off of Chris' plate and then put the plate in the sink, sighing a little. "He's so much like Prue sometimes. It makes me worry. He's…way too serious for his own good."

"He'll be fine," Leo said. He took a sip of his coffee, moving away from the table and stepping behind Piper at the sink. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the top of the head. "He's old enough to know how to take care of himself. And if he doesn't, he's smart enough to know to come to us with his questions. He had to get his stubbornness from somewhere, right?"

"Yeah…you're right. But wouldn't that be you over her?" Piper smiled in amusement.

Leo laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: This was a little delayed since I was busy the past few days. Sorry about that! I tried to do it at my parents' house when I went there for Thanksgiving tonight, but unfortunately, her microsoft word wasn't working properly, so I couldn't. Anyways, still don't own these people. Please don't forget to review :D

* * *

Nathan had heard stories of the Charmed Ones when he was growing up. The ones who had vanquished the Source, Zankou and the Triad, among countless other demons. Of course, he had heard of all of these bad things from his father, who said that they would never have to worry about them because their powers were bound, and evil didn't come after witches who didn't have powers. Which was true—neither he nor his father were ever attacked. He just always wondered what it would be like to be able to use his power. But at the same time, knowing that evil would come after him if he did use it…that was a frightening thought for a child his age. And now, with his father having passed away, Nathan's power was unbound and he was free to do whatever he pleased with it. How the demons knew his magic had surfaced, he wasn't sure. It worried him. There was so much he wasn't ready for. 

Being with one of the Charmed Ones, though, was probably the safest spot for him at the moment. Or two of them, for that matter, as Phoebe had come over early in the afternoon. Nathan was in the dining room, working on his homework. The two women were in the living room, talking. It wasn't about anything special, at least at first. When he heard mentions of innocents and things of the like his focus shifted toward their conversation. He was curious, after all. This was technically a whole new world to him, and he wanted to know everything he could to keep himself safe.

"…It's been a while since an innocent's been in the manor," Phoebe said with an amused smile on her face. "God, I can't remember how many times we used to have them in and out of here when we tried to figure out what was going on." She sipped at her water. "So are you just watching him while Chris and Wyatt are at school?"

"More or less," Piper explained. "Chris will be home sometime soon, but Wyatt has those long evening courses, so it's probably just going to be Chris keeping watch of him. I love my boys, but they're…fighting so much lately. And every time I try to get them to do things together, it just seems to make it worse. Kind of reminds me of when you and Prue used to butt heads about things." She snorted. "Only difference is, Melinda doesn't play the middle man like I used to. Or…like you did, with Paige and I, at first."

"Well, Chris is a lot more focused about these kinds of things than Wyatt is, I think." Phoebe shifted in her chair. "I mean, it's funny to think about it _now_, but he _was_ our whitelighter at one point. And the demon chases he used to send us on…"

Piper laughed. "It's really hard to believe that that ever happened. It was so long ago…it's almost like he never changed. I should probably have him help this kid for a while, at least until he's comfortable enough to use his powers to protect himself. Chris could guide him better than I think Wyatt could. Certainly more diligently."

"Might be a good idea. What did you say his power was again?"

"He can astral project. Or that's what he said he could do; we haven't seen him use his power yet. The last innocent they brought home didn't actually have powers, so this is a little different…"

Nathan, as he listened further, realized that he probably should have shown them his power. They had been nice enough to bring him into the manor and let him stay there until they got after the warlock, and so it was the least that he could do in order to pay them back. But it wasn't a power that he could just access on command. He had only done it once before, and that was in a time of urgent need. If only he could just think about it, and make it happen—

Before he knew it, Nathan felt lightheaded again. After everything blacked out he found himself standing in the living room, near the couch. He looked around very quickly; his body was hunched over the table in the kitchen, but he was standing in the living room. It had happened again.

"Guess that answers the question as to if he was lying or not," Piper said in amusement. She tilted her head to the side. "Nathan, were you listening to our conversation?"

"…Yes," he admitted, embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I just—"

"—Nah, it's okay. Don't worry about it. Happens all the time in here. Are you—"

But before Phoebe could finish what she was saying, Nathan's figure began to decorporealize. He returned to his original body with a gasp, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "Sorry!" he immediately exclaimed, to which the two women laughed.

"Come back into the living room!" he heard Piper say.

Figuring it was best to listen to what she said, Nathan pushed back from the table and moved toward the living room. Piper, who was sitting on the couch, patted the spot beside her. Though hesitant at first, Nathan moved there and sat down, clearing his throat.

"You know, you're not the only one who's had this power," Piper told him with a small smile on her face. "Our sister, Prue…she had it, too. And I remember being there when she first started getting used to it. She never thought that she was going to get the hang of it."

"Who's…Prue?" He had heard her name a few times since being in the manor, but he never actually had learned of who she was. She couldn't have really been a sister, though, could she? There were supposed to only be three, and from what he knew, there were just these two and the other one who he hadn't actually met.

"Prue…" Piper began, clearing her throat, "was our older sister. She died…back in 2001, protecting an innocent from a demon called Shax. Before Paige came along, the three of us were the Charmed Ones. Prue was a lot like my son Chris is. Very serious, focused, and passionate. She was usually the one who figured out what to do and how to do it. When she passed away…" she wrinkled her nose and wiped at it afterward.

"When she passed away," Phoebe picked it up, "We didn't think we'd be able to deal with it. It was really hard. But then we were lucky enough to meet our half-sister, Paige. She reconstituted our circle."

"So…" Nathan scratched his cheek, "Prue could astral project?"

"Yeah." Piper laughed. "And she got the hang of it eventually. Which you will, too. But until then, I think I'm gonna have Chris keep an eye on you, just in case any other warlocks try to come after you. That way, you don't have to worry so much."

"Oh. Okay." Nathan smiled. "You don't think he'll mind?"

Piper twirled one of the small strings of hair from the back of her head, looking down for a moment. "He…doesn't really have a say in the matter." She glanced back up at Nathan. "He's done it before, and I know that he can do it again. He's helped to put a good number of innocents back out there with the ability to take care of themselves and use their powers right."

"He and Paige have a lot in common that way," Phoebe added with a chuckle. "But he still can't heal yet."

"Oh, someday," Piper said. "If Wyatt can do it, so can Chris. He just needs to find that trigger like we all did with our powers…like you do with yours. But he'll work with you, and he'll help you." Patting his thigh, she continued, "Nobody's more important to Chris than innocents."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"So…what are you doing?"

"I'm scrying for the warlock. He managed to get punctured by one of the pencils on your desk, and so I'm using it to find him with this crystal." Chris stared at the map in front of him, carefully twirling the crystal above it. It didn't move to anywhere specific at first, but after a moment it seemed to shake, and then it flew toward the map. "Found the bastard."

"Where is he?"

Chris paused for a moment when he looked at the map, his face appearing confused. "…What the hell is he doing in Chinatown?"

"I dunno."

"…Huh." Standing up, Chris moved toward the potions table not too far away and grabbed one of them from the top. After he pocketed it, he looked over at Nathan. "You stay here, I'm gonna go vanquish him."

Nathan blinked. "But wait, I—"

As Nathan spoke, Chris orbed himself up and out of the manor, heading toward Chinatown. It was odd that the warlock was hiding out there, since the last one that he and his brother had vanquished had been hiding out there, as well. He figured it had to be something to do with the fact that there were so many people, which more than likely provided them with a decent enough cover. Even as he orbed into the deserted, dark alleyway he could hear the sound of people not too far away. The warlock he was looking for had to be somewhere nearby, because he had followed the trail directly…

Sure enough, out of the corner of his eye he heard the sound of something rumbling not too far away. It was a door handle rattling, and it was the warlock who was doing it. He sounded kind of angry, and agitated.

"Damn it, what good is having a security key if it doesn't _work_!?" The warlock slammed his hand against the door.

"Hey!" Chris shouted suddenly. The warlock, surprised, turned around. Chris tried to telekinetically throw the warlock against the nearby wall, but with a wave of his hand the warlock managed to deflect it, and the force sent the young witch twirling through the air. He hit the ground with a painful thud, crying out afterward.

"You're not going to get me like you did last time," the warlock said. "Now that I know what you can do, I'm better prepared to deflect it."

Chris grunted on the ground, trying to move his hand but finding himself still in a little shock. Hitting the ground like that had sent a shockwave through his body that he hadn't been expecting. A thought that he should have asked Wyatt to come with him crossed his mind but he quickly shoved it out of there and got somewhat mad with himself. He didn't need Wyatt to do this. He could do it on his own.

The warlock was approaching him, with the athame in his hand. Chris reached into his pocket to grab the potion he had. He would need to keep it with him until the warlock was close enough so that he could throw it at him. If he did it too early, then he would just deflect it, and then he wouldn't have anything to kill him with. And if he moved from where he was laying, then that athame would be in him faster than he could blink. Unless…

"Athame!" he called out.

The athame turned into a flurry of orbs before it disappeared from the warlock's hand, reforming in the witch's. He threw it with as much force as he could with one hand, and while the warlock lifted his hand to deflect it, Chris threw the potion as well. When it burst against his chest the warlock was lit aflame, and after an agonizing yell he exploded. But Chris didn't have much time to think about that, because he heard a "Holy shit!" not too far away from him.

"…_Nathan_? What the hell are you doing here?" Chris grunted and moved to stand, brushing himself off.

"I just…I really wanted to see what the warlock looked like when he got vanquished, and out of the blue, I was standing here." He looked around his feet, then back over at Chris. He let out a disbelieving laugh. "I guess I astral projected again. It probably won't last lo—" His words were cut off due to his body decorporealizing again, which left Chris all by himself.

Chris just rubbed his forehead and called for the athame again, orbing both it and himself back to the manor. Dealing with this was going to be harder than he thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Still don't own these kids. Well, Nathan, I do, but that's about it. Hopefully you like this chapter as much as the rest! Don't forget to review. :-D

* * *

"So…what's it like? Having a family like yours. I mean, you're the son of one of the Charmed Ones, so you're a pretty powerful witch. We know that much. But…you know, having all those cousins and siblings…it's got to be nice, right?" 

Nathan was lying on Chris' bed in the manor, a pillow propped up underneath him. He had spent the past few weeks there in the manor with the other, as well as his family, working on getting control of his power, and learning about the different aspects of the life that he had heard off and on about, but had never quite been able to experience. During this time, he saw a lot of things that he never thought he would, including a good amount of family interaction that wasn't a lot like his own. Being the child of two only children made it impossible for him to have cousins, and since he didn't have any siblings of his own…there was a lot of family interaction that he saw of which he was somewhat envious. Chris seemed to deal with it in a completely different way than Nathan would have, and so curiosity finally had gotten the best of him. They were taking a break from learning about different potion ingredients.

He had to ask.

"What do you think of it all?"

Chris, who was sitting in the chair at his desk, reached up and brushed a finger under his nose, looking at Nathan across the room. "It's…all right."

Nathan snorted quietly. "Just all right? Sounds like an avoidant answer if I ever heard one."

At first, Chris didn't say anything. Instead he just looked around the room, everywhere but at his charge. When his eyes finally fell upon the other he realized that he had been keeping it in for so long, had been keeping it to himself, that talking about it was kind of like admitting that it actually _was_ true, and that it wasn't just something that was worse seeming than it actually was. "It's…I don't know. Being brothers with Wyatt's like…being the brother of Jesus. You're there, but you're not as important because you're not as _blessed_, or you're not as _powerful_. And when I get mad at him he thinks it's just because I'm jealous." Chris furrowed his brow somewhat. "Which it sort of was at first, but…I got used to it. Though, the older I got, the more I realized that things usually were all about him, because he has that potential to become the greatest good, or the greatest evil. It gets tiring after a while…"

"Yeah, I guess that'd make sense…"

"Anyways." Chris' tone became somewhat quieter. "Then there's Melinda. And…she's great, really. Good having a sister. Mom and Dad love her, we love her…but she's the youngest. So she's got something special there, too. Wyatt's got his firstborn and twice blessed things. And I'm…" he laughed, almost kind of pathetically, "just sort of stuck in the middle. And am like our late Aunt Prue. Who everyone said was a hard worker, serious and a demon-hunter. Which is exactly what _I_ want to be."

Nathan scratched his nose. "I'm sensing a bit of sarcasm there."

"Ding ding."

"So is that why you guys live at the manor still?"

"To fight demons, you mean?" Chris asked.

"Yeah."

"Yeah. Mom constantly reminds us of what a hassle it was with Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige when they were living outside of the manor, and even though we can orb, it's just…easier for us all to be under one roof. We're more powerful when we're together. And even though Melinda doesn't always help, her power's one nobody else has besides mom, so…we kind of need her sometimes."

"She…can freeze things, right? That's her power?"

"Yeah." Chris shifted around in his chair. "But she's eighteen…she's in her last year of high school, and she's got more important things to do than to be a witch. And who can blame her? Wyatt wanted that kind of normalcy, too."

"What about you, though? You're only…what, about twenty-one, right? So you went through it, too." Nathan scooted closer on the bed to the chair that Chris was sitting in, clearing his throat. "Now you're at college. M'sure that's a nightmare for you guys."

"Aunt Phoebe did it, so I know that we can," Chris said. It was almost in defense, but he softened it, because it wasn't as if Nathan was trying to poke fun at him. "It just…it's hard. Because Wyatt does things a lot differently than I do. And mom's always telling me to take him along, just in case I need help. Sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't. I vanquished that warlock on my own. So when I don't need his help and he's there, and he just…knocks them all down with one wave of his hand, it makes me feel like—" but he stopped himself.

"…Like you're not good enough?"

Chris just sighed. "Sometimes it feels like it's a game to him. Like because he has all of these powers, that he's invulnerable, and that nobody's going to be able to do anything to him. But he doesn't understand that mom and Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige can't_do_ it anymore, so it's up to us. And he doesn't worry about the family like he should. Family's the most important thing, next to innocents. None of our cousins are old enough to fight. It's only us. We have to protect the family."

"That's a lot of weight on your shoulders."

Chris scoffed. "Ha! Yeah, you're telling me. Once Melinda gets out of high school it should be a lot easier. Or at least I'm hoping it will be. If we're gonna 'reconstitute the power of three'—" he used air quotes, "—then we kind of need her. Wyatt and I can't do it on our own."

"Or you on _your_ own," Nathan added. "Have you ever thought of telling—"

"—Wyatt what I think about it all? How I feel?" When Nathan nodded, Chris continued, "Yeah. But when I do, he usually thinks I'm just trying to come up with some excuse as to why something's too difficult. He wouldn't know difficult, though; Wyatt's never had any problems with anything he's ever done. He didn't even have to save himself from being turned evil. Dad and I did that. And Dad—" But again Chris stopped himself. Talking about his dad wasn't going to make things any better, especially since they were at the manor, where they could probably be overheard by someone walking by close enough.

"I don't really know your family all that well," Nathan confessed, shrugging some. "I mean, I know about as much about them as a person who's been visiting your house off and on probably would. Maybe a little better, but that's only because you've been helping me. I know your dad works at the Magic School..."

"Yeah, and he barely has time anymore for anyone but him, mom and the kids at school. He talks to Wyatt, Mel and I but it's usually for no more than a few minutes a day, because he has so much going on. And in the past, too, it was the same way. All of the times I wanted to spend time with him he had to do something else. I'd always get a rain check. But for Melinda he could make time, because she'd cry about it. But if I cried about it, I was told that I was being selfish, and that I needed to share my time, because I wasn't the only one, and that there were things to do, or demons to fight, or potions to make…" Chris stood suddenly, bringing one hand to scratch at his temple. "Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but I never got many of those bonding moments with my parents—well, at least with my dad—because they were always too busy trying to do other things to make sure we were kept safe. Or they were spending time with my siblings."

"Chris, I—"

"—And I always had to share _my_ time with anyone _with_ everyone, which—"

Nathan cleared his throat. "_Chris_—"

Chris finally stopped talking, but just long enough to run his hands over his face and let out another sigh. "It's…hard. You wanted to know what it's like. It's hard. It's hard not having anything that I can really call my own; having to share everything with everyone else; having to be the hard ass around here because Wyatt doesn't take things as seriously as he should; and having to sacrifice my spare time and energy into protecting the family because I seem to be the only one who cares enough." He snorted, mostly to himself. "…And it's hard, because I don't get anything in return."

"I don't mean to sound like some kind of party downer, buddy, but life isn't fair." Nathan moved off of the bed and stood, stepping closer to Chris. "You've gotta sacrifice things to get what you want, and sometimes you don't always get it. And if you do, you have to fight to keep it. You got dealt a bad hand, being the middle child, but you've got a lot of drive and a lot of focus. You can't let things get you down. Other people depend on you. And it may not always be fair, but you've just gotta go with it. If you don't, it'll only end up worse, and I may not know you as well as everyone else does, but I know you don't want that."

A small laugh escaped the darker haired boy. "You know, I thought whitelighters were the ones who gave motivational speeches and all that."

Nathan grinned, almost playfully. "Yeah, well, sometimes whitelighters need to learn to lean on their charges, too. If it's any consolation, I'm not going behind your back or anything and getting training and guidance from another whitelighter. S'just you."

"Ah, yeah," Chris said, "you know, that helps an awful lot." After a moment's pause he shoved at Nathan, who laughed. "But…seriously? Thanks."

"For?"

"For listening. You're…one of the only people who really has." Chris looked away for a moment, and when he looked back, he smiled a little. "I guess I just needed someone who would."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris stared at the outside of his mother's club. It still felt weird calling it that, since he knew that she hardly ever went there, and only kept it as a means of money next to her restaurant. He almost never came here—Wyatt did much more, and he wasn't really sure as to why. But Nathan had mentioned that he wanted to go, and had a while, apparently. Seeing as Nathan had been doing pretty well with all of the things that Chris had asked him to do and had shown him how to do, he figured that taking a break from everything wouldn't hurt. Plus, it had been a while since he had gone out and had some actual fun. Between studies and classes and working with making sure Nathan could protect himself, there really wasn't much time for Chris to do anything else.

This was even pushing it a little bit, but it wasn't as if anything pressing was coming up. Demon attacks had been on the low, with only one having tried to come after them while Chris worked on training Nathan. That hadn't even been all that hard…and after the talk that he and Nathan had had earlier on that week, he figured getting out and doing something fun wouldn't be _too_ bad.

"Chris! Get your I.D. out."

Chris blinked. He had blanked out in thought for a moment, and hadn't realized that they were already at the front door. The bouncer, who Chris sort of recognized, took his ID and then let him and Nathan on through. As he didn't frequent the place as often as Wyatt did, he would probably have to let them know who he was just so he could get them free drinks and a decent seat. Part of him almost thought it would have just been easier to bring his older brother along, but when it came to Nathan, Chris felt oddly possessive. Maybe it was just because _he_ had been the one who had helped him, who was training him, not his brother.

The last thing he needed was for Nathan and Wyatt to become close friends and to forget about him being there unless they needed him. Not that Wyatt didn't tend to do that enough as it was…

The inside of the club wasn't that much different than it usually was, from what Chris could tell. There were still various posters of different bands and ads plastered on the walls, people dancing on the floor or drinking at the bar, and neon lights glowing all around. There was even a live band performing on the stage. Seeing as his mother really didn't hire the bands anymore and left it up to the person who helped her with it, he didn't know who the people playing were. He didn't even keep up with music much, anyways, because he just didn't have the time. Still, the beat was nice—kind of smooth, melodic, and not too heavy. Chris kind of liked it.

Once they sat down at one of the tables, Nathan patted his hands against the surface of it, moving to stand yet again. "I'm gonna get us some drinks. You want anything?"

"Nothing too heavy," Chris said. "Just a beer or something. And tell them you're with Piper's son, and they should give it to you for free." He could have added 'just say you're with Wyatt' but he changed his mind due to a slight bristling of anger inside of him. 'Piper's son' was a little easier, because not a lot of people came here with them. Or with him, at least. Who knew who Wyatt brought here half the time?

"Yeah, got it."

Nathan slipped away from the table and left Chris alone for just a minute, which gave the darker haired boy a chance to people-watch a bit. The club was surprisingly packed for a Thursday, but he figured it had something to do with the band. Without really noticing it, his hands began tapping the beat of the music against the tabletop.

When Nathan came back he put Chris' glass in front of him and took his own into his hand, already taking a sip. "You know," he began after looking around for a moment, "I'm kind of surprised that you agreed to doing something like this." He grinned some.

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Why? I can have just as much fun as the next guy. I've been here before. Plenty of times…"

"Well, you just take everything so seriously," Nathan explained with a shrug and a drink. "It's just good to see you having some fun."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Now, if we could just get you on the dance floor…"

Chris snorted. "Yeah, well, I have to be a little bit more drunk for that to happen."

"Eh, well, I'll wait a while," Nathan said. "It's a challenge. We'll make you dance yet."

The two of them bantered back and forth for a few more minutes, sipping at their drinks. It was kind of nice, Chris thought, getting out of the house like this. As he really didn't have many friends from his classes, all he really had to hang around with was Wyatt. And while he liked his brother mostly, he spent enough time with him in just about every other way: sharing a room together; going to school together; fighting demons together…so, were he to hang out with Wyatt _outside_ of all of this, he would be spending just about every waking minute with his brother.

He couldn't even handle that with all the patience in the world.

Chris looked down at his glass, which was now almost empty. He felt somewhat buzzed already. Apparently, he didn't have as high of a resistance as he thought he did. Nathan was talking about something—something related to a class that he was taking that Chris had the term before—but his attention wasn't quite where it should have been. He was now staring at the people on the dance floor, watching them move to the rhythm of the music with seeming ease. Chris himself had never been that great of a dancer; he was always too self-conscious, knowing that people would see him and laugh at his two left feet.

It was just better to not dance, so he wouldn't have to worry about it.

But he wasn't the only one there. Nathan, who had seemingly picked up on the fact that Chris wasn't paying attention to him and rather to the people on the floor, reached out and nudged at his whitelighter's shoulder. "If you want to dance so bad, why don't you just go out there?"

Chris looked at Nathan, somewhat incredulously. "I don't want to dance. I was just…looking at them." He snorted. "I'm not a dancer."

"I bet half the people here aren't either," Nathan retorted with a smirk. "But people don't come here to be judged on whether or not they can dance. They just…do it because it's fun."

"Yeah."

"_Yeah_." Nathan took the final sip of his drink and moved to stand. "So, I think I'm gonna go be one of those people." He paused, and Chris looked at him. "And _you're _coming with me."

Chris looked taken aback at what Nathan said. "Uh, what?"

"_I'm_ gonna go dance, and _you're_ going to come with me, because you look like a brooding loner. Besides, think of the people you'll meet. Maybe someone hot, huh?"

"I…think that I'm gonna just stay here. You can go dance." Chris waved his hand. "You dance a lot better than I do, probably."

Although Nathan seemed hesitant, he pursed his lips and tapped his hands against the table. "…Yeah. All right. Well, your loss, dude. I'll be on the floor if you want to join me."

Chris only nodded to that, after which Nathan headed towards the dance floor. There was a small open space that he slipped into, and soon he was dancing with some girl. It didn't really surprise him; Nathan wasn't all that bad looking, and he seemed to know how to dance. Chris knew that he would have looked like a fool if he tried to go out there and do the same things that his friend was doing. He was better off sitting here at the table.

Like before, Chris started patting his hands to the beat against the tabletop. The live band had stopped for the night sometime ago and had been switched with recorded music that had a more danceable beat to it. He didn't even realize he was tapping the tabletop with his hands until he went to look at his watch. It was sometime past eleven, but it was too dark for him to figure out the exact time. Not that it mattered—they weren't on a schedule. It felt like they were, but that was just because it was what Chris was used to. Nathan would probably want to stay for a while anyways. They had only been there for a short time, after all.

When he looked back toward the dance floor he realized that he had lost sight of Nathan. A moment of searching found him again, but this time he was dancing with someone who clearly _wasn't_ a girl. And for some inexplicable reason, Chris felt a very large twang of jealousy surge up inside of him. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't care for it all that much. Nor did he care for the fact that the guy was dancing with _his_ friend, of all people. There were others around that he could dance with.

Before he knew what he was doing, Chris was standing up. He looked back at the table for just a moment, lingering near it, but soon was moving onto the dance floor despite his inhibitions. There were people moving around him, dancing to the music, and when he came close enough to Nathan and the other guy, he just sort of stood there. It felt awkward, but his arms were folded over his chest and he gave the guy a rather nasty look, one that surprised him. Nathan wasn't looking at him but rather at the guy, so when the other man seemed to catch the hint he turned around and almost stalked away, a dark sort of look in his eyes. Chris continued watching him for a moment, at least until his friend caught his attention.

"Hey!" Nathan said, amused. "You come to join me?"

Chris paused for a moment, then reached up to rub at his eyebrows. "Y-Yeah, yeah I did. Thought I might as well; it was kind of boring back there at the table by myself."

"Told you."

He said nothing in response to that, instead only looking around him at all the people. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to the fact that he was there, which was probably for the best—he wouldn't have started to try to dance—_try_—if they had been. His movements at first were very self-conscious. Chris had a somewhat lanky body with long legs and somewhat long arms, and he wasn't really sure what to do with them. He started by just moving his legs, or rather his hips, as closely in tune with the music as he could. It wasn't as hard as he thought it was, but everyone else around him seemed to make it look so much better. Even when slightly drunk, Chris was still a perfectionist, and he was getting somewhat frustrated with the fact that he wasn't dancing as well as he likely could have.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Dude, you look really uncomfortable." Nathan stopped dancing like he was, though his hips were still moving in tune with the music. "Just…move with it. It's not that hard."

"I'm_trying_," Chris said, a little irritably. He was moving a bit more than before now, just to prove it. It wasn't going as well as he wanted it to.

"Just—Chris—" Nathan raised an eyebrow, and he began to laugh. "Permission to help?"

Chris looked kind of defeated, a little frustrated, too, and he laughed almost a bit pathetically. Or try to, anyways. "God, am I seriously that bad?"

"Well. We can work on it."

What happened next surprised him. Chris gave Nathan the okay to help him, but he wasn't expecting them to become as close together as they suddenly were. And then there were hands on his hips, moving them with the music. He looked at the other boy, and a sort of tight, odd feeling crept up in his stomach. The hands on his hips continued to move them, and soon Chris picked up on it, both feeling in and creating the beat with his hips.

"You're gonna have to do something with your arms…they look really odd just hanging there. Move them with the music, all right?"

Chris swallowed. "…Okay."

That jealous feeling from before was gone, having been replaced by the tight one that he felt before. As his body moved with the music, he found that his arms were still hanging there kind of loosely. But the more that he looked at Nathan, the more he watched him move in tune with the music…without really realizing it, Chris slid his arms around Nathan's waist, their bodies closer together than they had been before. Nathan wasn't pulling away.

"All right, I think you've got it…"

Nathan picked up his pace just a little; to a level that Chris had a slight problem adjusting to at first. But soon thereafter things seemed to work themselves out, and they were moving in sync with the music, and with each other. Chris looked between them at the closeness of their bodies, and that tightening feeling in his stomach grew.

He knew what it was.

The music, the movements of their bodies, the heat of the club…everything was mixing together and dulling Chris' already somewhat shot mental focus. His hands gripped Nathan's hips, while the other boy's gripped his arms; they were closer again, faces near one another, and their bodies were moving in unison. The music seemed to quiet as Chris stared at the other's face, at his forehead, where a small line of sweat seemed to have gathered. He leaned his face in, but Nathan didn't pull away. His hands moved next, going toward the small of the other's back. As close as he was now, Chris' nose brushed against Nathan's; he could feel the heat emanating off of his face, could feel the warm breath slipping out of his nose. The tight feeling in Chris' stomach moved up into his chest as well—he ignored it. He just rocked his body with Nathan's, brushing his nose against the other's again, intentionally this time.

And in one brave move, or perhaps one that was orchestrated by their dancing, their lips brushed against one another's once, twice, before the two of them kissed.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Notes: I'm glad the last chapter was so well received! Heheh. I was a little worried, but things are good to go now, I think. Anyways, I still don't own any of these characters, aside from Nathan. Hope you all enjoy this chapter like the last, and don't forget to review. :)

* * *

Neither Chris nor Nathan had said anything on the ride back home about what had happened. Chris chalked it up to impulses and confusion, because there really wasn't anything else that he could blame it on. Dancing as close as they were was bound to make something like that happen, and so he should have been expecting it. He normally anticipated everything else, so why he didn't that, he wasn't all that sure. It made him somewhat uncomfortable. 

He had ended up orbing Nathan back to his dorm room, where he dropped him off with a slightly awkward goodbye, and then went back home. Out of courtesy for Wyatt, who was probably asleep—it was around three in the morning when he finally got home for the night—Chris didn't orb into their bedroom, but rather into the hallway. The white-blue particles of light lit up the darkened hallway for just a brief minute, and Chris' body reformed. He moved toward his door, put his hand on the knob, and was just about to turn it when he changed his mind. As he moved across the hallway toward the staircase the old wooden floor creaked and groaned beneath his weight. It was probably going to wake everyone up, so he just decided to orb downstairs into the kitchen, which was his destination.

Enough time had passed that his slight buzz he had from the club had begun to disappear. He got some water from the fridge and poured himself a glass, and grabbed one of the rolls from the fridge that were left over from dinner. That would be good enough, he figured. He hadn't actually eaten in a while, but his stomach felt weird, and he didn't want to feed it in the case that it would just come right back out again…

In the living room, Chris first sat, and then sprawled out on the couch. He wasn't tired enough to go to bed yet. Not that thought he would be able to anyways, because what he had done at the club was still picking at the back of his head. It probably would _keep_ doing it, too, until it was all figured out. There had to be a reason why he had done what he did, but it wasn't because he liked Nathan. Chris didn't see him that way, or he didn't think he did. It would have only complicated things.

Then again, Chris had complicated things daily when he traveled to the past. The past, however, he barely remembered, and because of all the things that he had changed, what he did remember was askew and more than likely incorrect. That, and…

"Damn it, Chris, you're doing it again," he told himself over the dull murmurs of the television, which he had turned on as a distraction. Who needed it when his mind was doing a fine enough job of it?

Maybe it was just something that had happened because of his possessiveness. Chris knew that he had that worse than most people did, but that was from years of being overshadowed by Wyatt's abilities and accomplishments. Whatever Chris had that he worked hard for was _his_, and he didn't want it to be taken away by someone else who didn't deserve it. Even though he loved his brother like he should have, sometimes he really _hated_ him, because Wyatt had done just that—had taken it away—several times in the past, whether it was with demons, charges or whatever. And he didn't like it. Nor did he think he had to. He had put about twice as much work into Nathan as he had with his other charges, simply because—

Well. There was his answer. There _was_ no logical reason for why he had put that much time and effort into Nathan _unless_ there was an underlying attraction. Chris had had about a dozen previous charges, none of whom he had been so focused on as this one. And there was no other reason why he would have let someone drag him onto a dance floor (and he hated them so) and who could have gotten him to dance the way he was. He had always been a hard worker who chose his responsibility as a witch and whitelighter over everything else, ignoring his personal growth in its favor. As such, it was bound to bubble up and pour over one day. That day just happened to be _today_. Or this week. Or however long it had been…

Really, the answer was staring him right there in the face, and he, like the obstinate person he was, was trying his best to rationalize it and make it less of a challenge to deal with.

He scoffed out a laugh. He really was his mother's son.

Now he just needed to figure out what in the world he was going to do with this…

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris was awoken the following morning by the feeling of a blanket being draped over his body. Seeing as he was a usually deep sleeper it was surprising that he woke up because of it; he figured it was just because he wasn't sleeping in his bed. He shifted on the couch and groaned just a little, his eyes slipping open. His mom was standing there, and she had a small smile on her face.

"Morning."

"Nngh." Chris responded at first. "Morning…"

"You got home late last night."

"No later than usual."

Piper snorted faintly. "Yes, well, when you aren't in your room like you're supposed to be that late at night, I tend to worry. Thankfully, you were here on the couch. What time did you get in?"

"I…don't know." Chris moved to sit up, and he rubbed at one of his eyes. "Three?"

Piper moved to take a seat on the couch beside her son. "You aren't usually out that late. You must have had a fun time."

"You could say that."

Things were quiet for a minute, with Piper reaching out to fidget and straighten with Chris' hair and his shirt, which he didn't stop. When he tried she usually just got more persistent, so he had learned to let her do her motherly things. It appeased her.

"So, any reason why you slept on the couch and not your bed?"

"Not really," Chris murmured, shrugging. He looked at his mom. "I just…orbed to my room, thought about going inside and going to bed, then changed my mind and went and got something to eat."

The remnants of his roll were on the coffee table. Piper glanced at them with a disdainful sort of look on her face. "…So you had a roll for dinner?"

"I ate," he lied, and just slightly defensively. "It was more than just a roll. That was just a snack. That and some water."

"Ah, so you drank."

Chris pursed his lips. "Yeah, but I'm old enough, so—"

"Calm down, I wasn't getting mad at you, I was just stating something." Piper chortled. "I don't care if you drink, so long as you do it responsibly." Chris said 'responsibly' at the same time she did, which prompted her to smile a little in amusement. "Exactly." She paused, giving him a look, but saying nothing just yet. Then, "So. What should we make for breakfast?"

"_We_?"

"That's right. You're going to help me."

Chris snorted. "Why?"

"Well, you're _up_, for one thing. Why, you don't want to?"

"You know I'm a horrible cook."

"One of the only things you didn't get from me," Piper said with a small smirk.

"Funny."

She patted his leg. "Well, you come into the kitchen when you're ready." She saw Chris' expression and continued, "And _no_, that doesn't mean twenty minutes from now. Just…in a little bit. Your dad, brother and sister will be up soon."

As if on some sort of late cue, Chris' stomach gave a strange sort of groaning noise to let him know that he was hungry. Piper just gave him a look, and he snorted, moving to stand. "Sometimes it's irritating how well you know me." But the way he said it was obviously jokingly, because he knew better than to say rude things to his mother.

While Piper walked with Chris to the kitchen she glanced at him, and placed her hand on his back. "Well, it's kind of my job…"

Chris only nodded. Once they were in the kitchen he moved toward the cupboard that had their skillets, frying pans and pots in it, and he grabbed two of the pans, along with one of the pots, just because he wasn't sure what they were going to make. "Hey Mom, what are we making?"

"I figure sausage for Wyatt and your dad…egg whites for him, too…hmm…" Piper moved toward the cupboard near the cellar door. "Did you want oatmeal this morning? You haven't had that in a while. Your sister will eat it, too."

"Yeah, that's cool."

What he had grabbed worked well enough, and so he put them on the island, and then headed toward the fridge to grab the eggs and the sausage. He had been told that his mother had become a little more health-conscious after Melinda was born, though she had never outright stated why. He had never been particularly bothered by it, since she seemed to lapse with it every now and then—like today, with the sausage and egg whites. But Chris didn't question it, because it wasn't that big of a deal. He had never been a big fan of the yolk of the egg, anyways.

And so with that, Piper and Chris prepared breakfast. Neither of them said much of anything outside of 'pass me this' or 'could you get me this' for a while, until everything was in their rightful pan or pot and was cooking. Nobody had yet woken up.

Since their food was just simmering for the time being, Chris decided to take a seat at the kitchen table. He watched as his mom hovered over the pots and pans to make sure that everything cooked right, but he wasn't really paying _attention_ to it. His mind was wandering to what he had thought about last night, and how he needed to deal with it. He was going to have to talk to Nathan eventually, because technically he still had things to show the other when it came to the craft—important things that he needed to know. Things between them were likely to be awkward, that much was for sure…

"…Hey, Mom?" Chris asked suddenly.

Piper didn't look over her shoulder but responded with, "Yes?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Shoot."

Chris moved to stand, slowly approaching the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Say…you, uh, were…_talking_ with someone, someone you knew."

"Mm-hmm."

"And say you did something kind of…impulsive." When he saw the way she looked over her shoulder he held his hands up, "Nothing _bad_. But…you know. Like…you kissed them, or something. Something small, like that."

Piper raised an eyebrow. "All right."

"So, it wasn't something you intended to do. And you felt kind of guilty about the way that you left things. You'd…talk to them, right?"

"Well, yeah." She stirred the oatmeal around a bit. "If it's someone you know, then you don't want to leave things sour between the two of you."

"That's what I thought." Chris gave his mother a small smile. "Thanks."

Tapping the stirring stick against the side of the pot, Piper looked at the timer nearby when it dinged. She gave her son a smile just like his own. "What're mothers for?" And after a pause, she added, "So, you're going to talk with him, right?"

Chris about choked when she said that. But he should have known—his mother was no idiot, and he didn't have an incredibly active social life in the first place. She would have probably figured it out even if he hadn't made it that obvious, which had been unintentional, anyways. He looked down at the island, pursing his lips. Then, somewhat quietly he said, "…Yeah, I had planned on it."

"Good." Piper turned around, giving her son one of those motherly, knowing looks. She didn't appear angry, or confused, or anything of the like when Chris looked at her. "Let me know how it goes and we can talk about it later?"

"Yeah, later," Chris said, and with good reason—just after he said that he heard the sound of footsteps coming through the dining room, and soon Wyatt and his father were standing in the kitchen as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris tried once again to orb himself to Nathan's dorm room, only to change his mind just about every single time that he began to decorporealize. It probably would have looked really strange, but nobody was in the attic with him, so he didn't care. He often came up here when he didn't know what to do. His uncertainty usually was demonically related, though, which this obviously wasn't. This couldn't have been more dissimilar, and in a way, that was sort of unfortunate.

How much easier it would have been…

After what felt like a million tries, the young Halliwell finally managed to work up the courage to orb toward Nathan's dorm room. He knew better than to orb directly into it, in the case that he was in there. It was trespassing, after all. What he did instead was orb to the spot on campus that he knew it was safe to, since nobody was ever there. It was midday on a Friday, when most people didn't have classes. Because of this, the campus was relatively empty, but Chris wasn't able to enjoy it because of the annoying worry in his stomach. He had never gotten so worked up over something so trivial before. But that, perhaps, was the hardest thing for him—deciding whether or not it was a big deal. When he thought it wasn't, then it almost seemed worse, as if he were denying something to himself. But in admitting that it was a big deal, it made it that much more difficult to deal with, too. Either way was hard.

God, why was this so confusing, Chris wondered?

"Halliwell curse," he told himself as he stepped into the building where Nathan was living. His mother had had it, as had his aunts—the dreaded curse of there always being some kind of problem with a relationship. Chris had drastically changed his future, and with it his memories, and as such wasn't aware of the fact that at one point, he had actually been engaged to be married. Perhaps it was better that way, because it would have just provided more evidence to the curse's power—in that timeline, Wyatt had killed her. But it couldn't have been a finalizing curse…they had all overcome it, after all, and had kids of their own now. Chris and Nathan couldn't have kids naturally, but they could always adopt.

Suddenly it dawned on him that he was thinking about that, which weirded him out quite a bit. That…was _too_ far into the future of something he couldn't even be sure of now in the present.

One short trip on the elevator and a walk down the hall later left Chris standing in front of Nathan's door. His heart was pounding in his chest, and it felt almost like it was going to pop through his throat or out of his mouth. There was just something funny, ironically funny, that he couldn't handle this, yet he could kill countless demons and warlocks and not have a problem. He supposed it was the way he was raised.

Almost tentatively, Chris lifted his hand to the door and knocked. There. He had done it. Now all he had to do was wait for a response. And wait he did. Five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Another knock. Five, ten, twenty all over again. Nathan obviously wasn't home.

"Damn it," Chris said irritably.

Of course, had he been paying attention he likely would have heard the quiet ding of the elevator not too far away, and would have seen that the very person he was looking for was making his way down the hall. Chris didn't glance up until about the last moment, and that was only because Nathan called out his name in slight surprise.

"…Hey," Chris said, with a pathetic sort of wave.

Nathan smiled. "Hey."

Nothing more was said after that, at least at first. The two of them looked at each other for a lingering moment before Chris pulled his eyes away and looked to the door. Nathan stepped towards it and slid his keycard with it, just so that the door was open. He slipped inside. "You, uh…want to come in?"

"Yeah…sure."

After Chris stepped inside the door shut behind him. It was weird being inside the dorm room, since he had only been there once or twice since he had originally saved Nathan from the warlock. They mostly stayed at the manor, where it was safer.

"Feel free to take a seat on the futon or something," Nathan said, gesturing to the small futon next to his desk. He stepped into the bathroom not too far away.

So while Chris did that, the awkward feeling inside of him grew bigger, and also heavier feeling. He knew that they had to talk about it, but how in the world did you bring something like this up without seeming like a total ass? It wasn't like he was going to apologize for what happened; no, he knew that he had _liked _it, and he wasn't going to apologize for something that he thought Nathan probably did, too. He didn't pull away—it had been very reciprocal. The only problem was that it had become too much, too quickly. It wasn't every day that this kind of thing happened to Chris. He was the loner, the hard worker, the one who had more important things to do than to deal with things like this.

But, apparently even he had difficulty keeping up with that every now and then.

His focus seemed to be shot by the time that he heard the toilet flush and the door open, which albeit hadn't been all that long after he sat down on the futon. Any thoughts that had been in his head quickly vacated it, leaving him with a sort of blank sort of smile on his face when Nathan headed into the kitchen.

"Did you want anything to drink?"

"Nah, I'm okay, thanks."

"All righty."

Chris didn't turn around, instead just listening to the sound of Nathan rustling around in the kitchen. He heard glasses clinking and heard the fridge opening, as well as the sound of something being poured. And, having taken to rubbing his hands together so that his body didn't shake from whatever it was he was feeling, he looked forward at the little wooden table. He had seen ones like it on sale at the store. That proved to be a great distraction.

It didn't last long, however.

"So…what brings you my way?" Nathan took a seat on his bed, which was to the right of Chris and resting near the wall. It wasn't a terribly big bed, but it was bigger than his—maybe a full or a queen size. A bigger bed than he probably needed, and his staring made Nathan laugh. "Yeah, I know, it's an oddly big bed for someone like me. But it was free, and from my grandma, so I'm not gonna complain. But yeah…"

Chris wrinkled up his nose momentarily. He opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again a moment later. Whatever he was going to say had slipped out of his mouth without him vocalizing it, leaving him with a surprisingly blank expression on his face. Thankfully, Nathan had been taking a sip of his drink when it happened. Now he could feel the other boy's eyes on him again however, and he needed to answer why he was there, unless he wanted to get things to become more uncomfortable than they had been feeling for him. He wasn't made for this kind of pressure.

"Damn it," he murmured, which he had meant to only say to himself. Nathan's snort and a response of "Damn what?" caught Chris' attention and caused his cheeks to turn a slight shade of pink. He once again opened his mouth, with nothing coming out. Suddenly he moved to stand, and for once, something finally did come out: a laugh.

Nathan looked confused. "What's so funny?"

"This! This is freaking funny." Chris laughed again, but in a very disbelieving sort of manner. "Me, I'm funny. This whole thing, it's funny as hell."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I just—demon fighting and killing I can handle, but I can't handle talking about what happened at the club? I can't—"

"—You mean the kiss—"

"—deal with something like this, when probably thousands of people go through it daily?"

Nathan stood, setting his drink on his nightstand. Chris didn't notice him moving towards him, but he felt the other's hands grip his arms, and before he knew it, there was another kiss being placed on his lips. As it was unexpected Chris sort of pulled away, and when he did he looked confused. But he had at least stopped talking, that was a plus.

"People kiss, Chris. It's normal. See? You didn't die."

Chris paused, and then snorted. "Well, duh."

"Well, you're _acting_ like you're going to die. It's not that big of a deal."

It was pretty obvious that he was being chastised, but Chris didn't respond to it negatively, because he knew it was true. And now that Nathan had said it, it had solidified it in his head, which took a very heavy load off of his shoulders. The young Halliwell felt like he could stand up straight again, which he actually did.

"I don't know why I'm getting so worked up over it."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "You…don't date much, do you. Probably why."

Chris opened his mouth to retort, except when he realized it was true, his face fell just a little. "Yeah. But there's always been something more important to deal with."

"Demons, I'm gonna guess?"

"Bingo."

"Does your brother date?"

Chris looked taken aback. "What?"

"Wyatt…does_he_ date?"

"Yeah. On and off."

"Then why can't you?" Nathan gave him a look.

There it was again…that nasty self-doubt thanks to inferiority and jealousy issues. Chris tried not to make a face, even though it was really hard. He _hated_ being compared to Wyatt, especially with sensitive issues like this or magic. Wyatt may have had more active powers, but when it came to things like casting spells and making potions, Chris was on par with him, if not better. However, on a more social level, he wasn't quite as far along; Wyatt seemed to have a natural charisma about him that his younger brother both coveted and hated at times. That wasn't to say that he was socially retarded—he was far from that. Though, he most certainly couldn't go to a party where he knew no one and leave with three or four numbers by the end of the night like his brother could.

But damn it, he was going to prove that he could do this, too. He was nothing if not obstinately persistent, especially when it came to proving that he was as good at things as his brother was.

"Did you wanna go out sometime?" Chris asked all of a sudden, scratching at the back of his head and looking at Nathan.

Nathan's expression brightened some, and a smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, sure. So long as you can guarantee that you won't start talking to me about magic business. Because I gotta tell you, man, it really kills the conversation sometimes."


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Haha, I forgot how much I liked this story. I had to re-read it all the other night because I missed the interactions between the characters! I'm glad everyone is liking it thus far. Here's another chapter for you all to enjoy! Oh, yes, don't own them. And don't forget to review!!

* * *

Chris and Nathan's first "official" date really hadn't been that much different than any of the other times that they had hung out, because they had both agreed on trying to keep things as normal as possible. Chris' perfectionism became much more apparent in the weeks that followed, as if the slightest thing went wrong in his planning, it usually made him angry and irritable for the rest of the day. He was getting better at keeping it to himself now, though he did have Nathan to talk to if necessary. Nathan didn't shrug him off like his brother did, and he didn't try to fix the problem like his mother. He just listened, added his own opinion if asked, and that was that.

That quality was one of the things that Chris had become quite attached to about Nathan—his ability to listen. Of course, if he started complaining too much, the other boy was quick to change the subject onto something else, so that it didn't sour the mood of their time together. Things had been hard for Chris for the first week or so, because he wasn't really sure what all was much different, other than the fact that they would be more affectionate. And those moments weren't rare, but they weren't numerous, either. Just a lingering touch here, or a kiss there. They hadn't done much else, because although Chris did like him a lot, he was still his charge so to speak, and he had a lot of things left over to teach him that took precedence.

It was a Saturday, and a wet, rainy one at that. Dark clouds had rolled in that Friday evening and it rained overnight, continuing into the morning and the afternoon. Chris and Nathan were upstairs in the attic working on a few potions, all for a test of sorts. Piper and Leo were out of the house doing errands and Wyatt had gone out with some friends, leaving the two of them alone with Melinda downstairs, who was working on homework, but mostly watching television.

"All right, so just add the billings root…"

Chris was standing near the potions table, but he had the _Book of Shadows_ and its stand nearby. He knew the potion by heart since he had made it so many times before—it was a low grade explosive that worked on low-level demons—but he was looking through the book for other things. There always seemed to be something in the book that he hadn't read before, no matter how many times he looked at it. He glanced at Nathan for just a moment, and the second that he looked away he heard a loud, but somewhat muffled scream. Chris recognized it immediately as belonging to his sister, but his immediate response was to look at Nathan, who…wasn't moving.

Melinda must have frozen something.

"Mel!" he called, not even wasting time by running down the stairs and deciding to orb there instead. When he reappeared in the living room he saw his sister with her hands still stuck out, and a rather large goblin standing there, frozen. It caused Chris to jump just slightly. They had fought some before, but they never ceased to scare the crap out of him.

"It just _appeared_," she said with a groan. "I was working on my homework and I looked up, and there it was, standing by the grandfather clock. So I froze it."

"Well, you froze Nate, too," Chris said. "He was working on a potion…which we could probably use to get rid of this guy, but…" After a pause, he looked toward the coat hanger not too far away, and noticed that the goblin was at just the right angle. So with a wave of his hand he sent the frozen creature flying, and it landed on the coat hanger, which pierced it through its heart. The goblin imploded with flames and a mess of goo shot out, which Melinda also froze.

"He'll be fine," Melinda said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I wasn't really thinking of who I wanted to freeze, so I just did it to everything."

Chris snorted. "Well, we'll have to get a bucket for the slime here, because otherwise it's gonna make a mess. And if you do, Mom'll kill you."

"You're the one who vanquished it. Why would I have to be punished?"

Just shaking his head, the older Halliwell started heading towards the basement, where they had a bucket they could use. But on his way he heard the doorbell rang, and he turned around to look through the stained glass to see who it was. He blinked.

"Since when does Aunt Paige use the door?"

Melinda shrugged again.

"A lot of help you are. Why don't you get back to your homework? Or should I say, your _Real World_?" Chris gestured to the television, and after his sister waved him away he went to the door to pull it open for his aunt.

She was standing there and folding her jacket, which was drenched from the rain pouring outside. With a smile she slipped inside, shutting the door behind her. "It's really coming down out there, isn't it? I thought I was going to be soaked just getting out of the car!"

"Yeah," Chris began, "It's really—"

"—Is that demon blood?" Paige interjected curiously. Chris nodded, and she continued. "Oh, wow. You know, we had one attack us a little while back, but other than that it's been pretty smooth sailing…"

"Yeah, it's from a goblin that just attacked a minute ago. It's probably going to unfreeze soon, so do you think you could…you know?"

"Orb it away?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Yeah, no problem. Goblin blood!" Paige waved her hand at the blood, and it turned into a flurry of orbs before disappearing all together. Over the years she had reached a level where she didn't have to say the name of the object anymore, though sometimes, like now, she did just out of habit. "Sent it to the trash."

"Ew, it's gonna stink!" Melinda said.

"The_street_ trash," Paige said with a snort.

Chris turned toward his aunt, and he cleared his throat. "So what're you doing here, Aunt Paige? Where are the twins and little Henry?"

"They're at their grandma's house for the day. I thought I'd come over and see if your mom was here, and if she wanted to go to lunch or something. We haven't talked in a while."

"Mom's out," Chris explained. "With Dad, actually. They're running errands."

"Oh, ew, on a day like this?" Their aunt sent a look toward the closed door, through which she could somewhat see the rain falling. She laughed.

"They'll probably be out of the house for a while, 'cause they just left a bit ago…"

"Ah…well, all right. Let her know I stopped by, all right?" She moved in to give Chris a hug, who returned it.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to. See you later."

Paige put on her jacket and smoothed it out before she offered a goodbye to her niece and nephew, slipping out the door and shutting it behind her. Chris looked at Melinda, who had her books in her lap but who was also looking up more at the television than at her actual homework. It didn't really matter, because she always got it done and she always got a good grade. If he told her to do it she would just ignore him anyways; that was just the way she was. Just like their mom with her stubbornness.

Instead of worrying about that, Chris realized that Nathan was probably still frozen upstairs, and if not, he had likely unfrozen and was wondering what in the world had happened. Once he was back in the attic again he noticed that Nate was, as he had originally thought, still frozen there.

"Melinda! Unfreeze!" he yelled down the stairs.

After a moment Nathan was moving like nothing had happened, adding the billings root to the potion, which caused it to poof a little and cause some smoke to billow out from the bowl. When Nate looked up, however, he saw that Chris was standing in a different spot. It made him furrow his brow.

"She freeze me?" he asked.

"Well, not just you." Chris tapped his fingers against the _Book_. "There was a goblin that appeared downstairs, Melinda froze it, and we vanquished it. Well, _I_ vanquished it. But yeah."

"Hm." He nodded. "I always thought you said that good witches don't freeze?"

"Melinda's…had 18 years to work with her powers. She can probably do just about anything she wants with them. Mom can. Besides, the rules of magic are wonky enough as it is. There are only a few solid rules that you can trust."

Nathan just chuckled. "Huh. Well, looks like this potion's done. What did you want to do with it?"

"You keep it," Chris said. "You made enough to have a few bottles of it, so you can have them to keep you safe if any low-level demons or anything come after you."

"Aha, sounds perfect." Nathan looked over his shoulder at the door, and when he noticed nobody was there, he returned his gaze to Chris, and he grinned a little. "Does this mean you're not going to keep the demons from attacking me then?"

Chris snorted, an amused sort of smirk appearing on his face. "You'll be fine. You've got good control over your power more or less, and can sustain your astral form long enough to distract anything from attacking you. You'll mostly be relying on potions and spells to protect yourself, though. We haven't even touched spells yet…"

Nathan stepped closer to Chris while he mused aloud, and he reached out, gripping him by the hips. "What did I tell you about the magic talk?"

"We're working on _potions_…we kind of need to talk about magic. For your safety."

"I've got you," Nathan said, and he gave Chris a kiss. The way Chris blushed was amusing to him. "Besides, you said it yourself. We're working on _potions_. Not spells. And we've been at it since early this morning, so it's probably a good idea to take a break. We—" But he was interrupted by a ringing phone. Nathan pulled back from the other and took his phone out of his pocket, checking the name. "Huh…s'my mom."

Nathan's mother called very rarely from what he had told Chris, so it was surprising to hear her on the other line, however faint it was for him. It wasn't as if they had a bad relationship—Nathan had told him that his mother just wanted to give him time to adjust to living on his own, and so she didn't want to invade his personal space by calling constantly. But it was nearing Halloween, which was Nathan's birthday, so he figured it would make sense for his boyfriend's mom to call.

When he hung up the phone Nate had a small smile on his face. Chris cocked his head to the side.

"What'd she want?"

"She wants to hang out today, actually, and was just wondering what I was doing. She said that way I can hang out with friends or something for my actual birthday…I told her I was busy right now, so we could go to dinner or something."

Chris nodded. Even though they had planned to hang out later this evening for some non-magic related time together, he knew that they could do that any time. It didn't bother him, at least not very much. Family was important, after all.

"Is that okay? I know we had plans, but—"

"Yeah, it's okay," Chris said. "Don't worry about it. We'll just go out tomorrow?"

"Works for me." Nathan moved in to give Chris another kiss. "Thanks."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Since Chris' plans for the night had been changed, it meant that he had the night to himself. It was probably for the best anyways, because he had a pile of homework that he had been neglecting in favor of helping Nathan along with the craft. That was the most important thing, since someone's life was more important than passing a course. And though he knew his mom would probably understand, he knew that she would expect him to do both.

That was why he had skipped out on dinner, and why he was currently still sitting in his room, staring at the papers on his desk. Although the heavy wooden door was shut it wasn't _closed_, and there was a tiny sliver of it still left open, which allowed him to hear—however faintly—the sounds of his family watching television downstairs. He didn't notice that there were footsteps coming towards his room until he heard a faint knock on his door.

"Come in," he said, not looking over his shoulder.

Piper wandered in a second or two later with a plate in her hand, and a glass in the other. When she set them on his desk Chris snorted quietly. "I was gonna come down and get some."

"Well, I saved you a trip," Piper said. She took a seat in the chair near the desk. "I didn't want it getting too cold. I know you don't like reheated food."

Chris, putting his pen down, breathed in a little. His mom had made lasagna from what he could smell, and he cast a glance at the plate on the edge of his and Wyatt's desk. Sure enough, there it was on his plate, along with a nice piece of garlic French bread. It smelled really nice. "Especially when it's lasagna. Thanks, Mom."

"No problem."

It was about time for a break anyways, Chris thought, and so he brought the plate toward him, taking a bite of the lasagna on it. His stomach growled from his hunger. Yes, it was definitely time to eat.

So sat there he did, eating all the while. After a minute or two he noticed that his mother was still sitting in the chair, legs crossed, her arms resting comfortably in her lap. He took another bite before looking at her, almost expectantly, as if he were waiting for her to give him a reason as to why she was still sitting there. Piper saw this, and she cocked her head to the side just a little bit, smiling in that motherly sort of way.

"So…"

"_So_…" Chris raised an eyebrow.

"It's been a few weeks. You never told me what happened."

"Happened with what?"

"You know…"

Chris snorted. He should have expected something like this, because it was true—it _had_ been a few weeks, and she could only have been referring to the situation he had come to her with at that time. He would have thought the answer to be obvious, since it wasn't like Nathan hadn't been around the manor. They clearly weren't arguing. And out of anyone, he thought that his mother would have picked up on the fact that there was a little something more going on between them.

But who knew?

"Isn't it obvious?" he finally asked, but in a careful sort of tone, and with a small look of disbelief on his face. "Things worked out okay. He's been hanging around the manor…"

Piper didn't say anything. She only stared at Chris, the same smile on her face. It was unnerving him a little, especially since the possibility of her actually knowing what was going on was _real_. He returned the stare for as long as he could before he finally just looked down, letting out a quiet sigh. He pointed his hand at the door and used his power to make it shut.

"And_there's_ the answer I was waiting for."

Chris wasn't really sure what to say in response to that. Obviously she knew, because when she said things like that, she rarely was ever kidding. He took the slice of bread from his plate into his hands and tore it apart, plopped a piece of it into his mouth, and then shifted in his chair so that he was facing his mother. She was no longer smiling like she was before, and instead looked curious.

"I…" he began.

"I know."

Chris blinked. "You—" But he stopped when he noticed Piper's nodding. "So, why didn't you say anything?"

"I figured you'd tell me when you were ready."

"Well what makes you so sure I was ready to tell you _now_?"

She smirked a little. "You wouldn't have responded if you weren't ready."

"You have a _really_ weird way of getting people to talk about things," Chris said. "I was going to tell you, but I just…" What excuse was there? Or one that even worked? It wasn't like he had intended for it to happen and had orchestrated it; he and Nathan just liked each other and it worked for him, and Chris didn't want it to try and ignore it…not after feeling like he was socially inept next to his brother. He was proving well that he wasn't.

As Chris wasn't looking at her anymore, Piper moved to stand, and she placed her hands on her son's back, rubbing his shoulders. "Doesn't make me love you any less, you know."

"_Mom_…" Chris muttered under his breath. "I just—I was…I don't know." He wasn't really sure how to put his thoughts into words. "It just happened."

"Has it ever happened before?" Piper asked, a tiny sliver of curiosity slipping into her tone.

"No," her son admitted. "Just with him. The other charges…no."

"I see…"

"Mom, you're not—you know, you're not gonna tell Dad, Wyatt and Mel, are you?" Chris looked over his shoulder, and for the first time in a while, he felt kind of nervous. He wasn't sure why he asked that since he could almost swear that she wouldn't. But he had to ask anyways, just because he didn't think he would be able to handle the nervousness.

Piper only chuckled. "You think I'd tell them something about _your_ private life? No, I'm not going to tell them. You tell them when you're ready. It's your business."

Chris breathed a sigh of relief. He had been right, as he had expected. "Thanks."

"As long as you don't turn evil, I'm pretty okay with you doing what you like." She grinned some down at him and patted his shoulders. "Except…if I catch you skipping class again, I'll have to ground you."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Only one more chapter to go after this! I just thought I'd let everyone know. And finals week is coming up tomorrow so I'm going to post the last chapter then (hopefully) so I don't have to post any more throughout the week, since it would probably be really sporadic. This is just a little bit of...randomness, I suppose, with the family. I have a lot of fun writing those kinds of things. Still don't own them. Urgh. Please review :-D

* * *

Chris sent a glance over everyone sitting at the dining room table. For this time of the year, it was surprisingly bright outside that afternoon, and it made it easier to see what everyone was writing on their little notepads. Nathan, Melinda and his cousin Patty—otherwise known as "Ladybug"—all had different looks of irritation on their face, it being more noticeable on hers than on the other two's. He was making them work with spells, and he figured that, since he was telling Nathan, he might as well help his sister and his cousin, since the two of them were old enough to be out and about on their own, and would thus need protection. Potions weren't always enough, after all. 

Wyatt, the oldest of them all, was also there, and was helping his brother in teaching the other three about spells. Chris had a stronger grasp of spell work than he did, at least in making them quicker and more potent, but that was due to the fact that Wyatt could usually vanquish things with his active powers alone. And when in doubt, there was always Excalibur…

"So, assuming the demon after you has the ability to deflect your active powers…you're gonna need a good, strong spell that can strip him of it, leaving him vulnerable to vanquish." Chris rubbed his hands together. "Let's see what you guys came up with." Since his sister was the closest to where he was standing he went for hers first, and when he read it, he almost laughed. But he kept as straight of a face as he could.

"Jeez, could you be laughing more on the inside?" Patty asked him, eying her cousin with a raised eyebrow. Like her mother, she had been given the power of Empathy, and thus was able to feel her cousin's amusement, which was strong.

Chris cleared his throat. "Ha. Anyways, Mel, this…well. It's _okay_."

"But?" she asked.

"But, you've got it too broad. This just says 'remove the powers', which could affect _you_ in a way that you really don't want it to." Placing the notepad back on the table, Chris stepped towards Patty, but she held her pad against her chest.

"You're just gonna make fun of it."

In the blink of an eye, the pad disappeared from her hands and reappeared in her elder cousin's. Wyatt gave her a grin, and then looked over what she had written. "This isn't too bad, Ladybug. A little more precise than our dear sister's here."

"Shut up, Wyatt," Mel said irritably. She shook her head, moving to stand. "This is like, the fourth time you've tried doing this with me and you both just pick on me. It's stupid. If I want to learn how to write spells better I'll just ask Mom, Aunt Phoebe or Aunt Paige. They're a lot more tolerant than you two are." Melinda looked to her cousin. "Come on, Patty, we were gonna go the mall still, right?"

Patty just nodded, and she, too, stood up.

"Oh, come on, Mel, we were just teasi—"

Not even allowing her darker haired brother to continue, Melinda, along with Patty, stepped out of the dining room and headed up the stairs, where Chris could only assume that they were going to her room. He turned to his brother, who laughed. But soon thereafter both boys' mouths shut and their lips were melded together.

Nathan, who up until this point had been pretty quiet with all of the family talking, snorted quietly. "So maybe she writes spells better than you think she does?"

The spell, however, didn't last very long. Both Wyatt and Chris' lips were split open into two again, and they were allowed to talk once more.

Chris wrinkled up his nose. "She's vindictive enough to make things work when she wants to. I bet it was a _combined effort_." He raised his voice at the end, though he doubted that either of them could hear him, since they were probably in Melinda's room already. "_Anyways_. What did _you_ write?"

"Nothing good," Nathan said with another snort. "I've never been good at rhyming."

"Spells are kind of overrated anyways," Wyatt said with a shrug. "They're only really necessary for the more powerful demons. But I doubt any of them will be coming after you, so I wouldn't stress."

"Never hurts to be _prepared _nonetheless," Chris said, and he moved his gaze from Nathan to Wyatt. "We don't know what's in store for him. For all we know, some demon could be coming after him as we speak."

Nathan's face fell with mild irritation. "Yeah, thanks, Chris."

Chris pursed his lips. "…Sorry."

Wyatt shook his head. "Well, now that _that's_ dealt with, I can get back to what I had planned for the night. I've got a date in a little bit, and I need to go grab some stuff beforehand. Oh!" He clapped his hands together. "Mom wanted you to go out and buy some more Lavender sprigs, hemlock root, henbane and…" he furrowed his brow in thought, "…ginger root. Yeah, that was it. There's a list on the fridge."

"She wanted _me_ to do it?"

Wyatt paused. "…Well, she wanted _one _of us to do it, but I figured you weren't busy, so…"

Chris almost glared. "Yeah, great, of course. _Sure_. God knows I don't have plans for Halloween. I'll just—"

"It's cool," Nathan interjected quickly, standing. "We can go get it, right? I need to find out where you guys buy your stuff anyways, so it's no big deal." He looked from Wyatt to Chris.

Chris pursed his lips again. "Yeah, I guess." He stared at his brother. "You gonna be back tonight?"

"If everything works out the way I'm hoping…no," Wyatt said, lips curling into an undeniable smirk. "But the clock's ticking, so I'm gonna head out. See you guys." And with that he gave a quick wave goodbye, heading out of the dining room to the kitchen to grab his keys.

This left Chris and Nathan alone again, and although this normally would have made him happy, Chris was still feeling kind of sour about the way that things were left with his sister, brother and cousin. As they were still in the manor with other people, neither boy made any move to get too close. But Nathan did pat his boyfriend's back and smiled at him.

"So…I'll drive?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

"All right, looks like we've got everything. Should be good to go."

Chris, with the bag of potion ingredients in his hand, stepped toward the door to go outside, only to have someone grab the handle and pull it open before he could push it. He looked at the other man as he moved past, but he paused in his steps and turned around to look back at him. He seemed…somewhat familiar, though Chris couldn't put a finger on it. He had long since learned not to ignore his feelings, especially when something rubbed him the wrong way, and so he put that in the back of his head, wondering if he should keep a watch on him.

But Nathan still walking and was also reaching into his pocket to find his keys all the while, and was cursing because he couldn't. "Chris, did I give them—wait. No, never mind. I found them." A moment later he pulled them out of his pocket, jingling them. "I always put them in this little pocket on the side of my coat by mistake, and—" Nathan stopped when he realized that Chris wasn't walking beside him anymore and he looked over his shoulder toward the other. "Chris?"

The dark haired witch blinked, as if his focus were broken. "Huh?"

Nate laughed. "Earth to Chris."

"What?"

"Never mind. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine," Chris said dismissively. He shot a look over his shoulder again, but the man had since disappeared. He returned his attention to Nathan. "Sorry about that. We should get this stuff back to the manor before they mix together and cause a major explosion. There's some volatile stuff in this bag. I didn't know we'd run out of most of these…"

"It'll be fine," Nathan said, and he reached for the bag. "They separated everything with tissue paper and stuff, remember? We'll just stick it in the trunk, and we can spend the rest of the night together."

"Yeah, but it'd probably—"

"Oh come _on_." Nathan looked around them before gripping Chris' wrist and pulling him into the small alleyway near the occult shop they had just come out of. He gave his boyfriend a slow kiss, which made Chris loosen up just a little. "It's my _birthday_. _I_ spent majority of the afternoon listening to you talk about spells and gripe at your brother. You can go out to dinner or something for tonight. It won't kill you..."

Chris, without thinking, slid his hands down and rested them on Nathan's hips, and moved in for another kiss. They had been much more physical lately, but he wasn't about to complain. Nathan had the bag secured carefully on his arm, and since kissing didn't require much more than moving lips and occasionally a tongue, he let himself enjoy it. It _was_ true that it was Nathan's birthday, too, and if they didn't do something celebratory he would likely get pissed off. That wasn't something he wanted.

And it wasn't like any demons had attacked lately…

Pulling his head back some, Chris brushed his nose against Nathan's. "Yeah, all right. We can go to my mom's restaurant. It'll be a nice, free, comfortable dinner. Right?"

Nathan grinned. "Sounds great." He paused. "…So I _guess_ we could go back to the manor and drop this stuff off, you know. If you wanted. It's only six."

Chris nodded. "All right, let's get going."

The drive back to the manor was surprisingly long, and in a way, Chris wished that they had just orbed to the manor to drop it off. But that thought hadn't occurred to him until they were stuck in the car in all the traffic, where they couldn't possibly do it. They arrived back home sometime before seven, being stuck in the traffic for almost an entire hour. By the time they got back Chris was sufficiently irritated. But then again, when wasn't he?

Nobody was home at the manor, but he had expected that. Wyatt had his date tonight, Melinda was probably hanging out with Patty at some Halloween party, and his parents were at the restaurant, where they would be until it closed sometime later that night.

He shut the door behind him once Nathan was inside. There was a bowl full of candy for the trick-or-treaters, which led Chris to assume that his sister had been stuck with the duty but opted to skip out on it, probably in hopes that he would do it for her. Part of him got a little mad about that, because they were always doing those kinds of things to him when they got the chance.

Well, he_had_ a social life now, or at least a good enough one that got him out of the house every now and then. He wasn't going to do it.

"Okay, I put the ingredients in the kitchen and separated them, so we can get going." Nathan popped back into the foyer with a grin on his face, rubbing his hands together. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, just hang on a minute." They weren't going to be there to give the trick-or-treaters the candy and so Chris opened the door and set the bowl outside. It was going to be gone by the end of the night, that much was for sure, but he wasn't particularly concerned about that. He had other things to think about. After shutting the door again and turning the lock, he turned back towards Nathan. "We're not driving there. I'll just orb us into my mom's office. That way, we don't have to deal with traffic."

"Sounds good to me."

It took Chris a moment to realize that he had almost orbed while holding Nathan's hand. He let go of it and moved it to his shoulder before he transported them into his mother's office. She wouldn't have minded, that much he knew, but he had a feeling that his dad was going to be in there and his mom in the kitchen, and it was better to be safe than sorry. He didn't know yet, and he wasn't ready to tell him. It wouldn't be the right moment.

Sure enough, when they arrived in his mother's office, his dad was sitting there at the desk, papers beside him and a pen in his hand. Leo looked up at the swirling collection of white-blue orbs and smiled when he saw his son and Nathan standing there.

"Hey, guys. What're you doing here?"

"Dinner," Chris replied. "It's Nathan's birthday."

"Oh yeah? Happy birthday!"

Nathan grinned. "Thanks." He gestured to the papers on the desk. "What're you working on? Papers?"

"Essays and things," Leo explained, chuckling. "I would have graded them at Magic School or the manor but I figured it would be more quiet here. No trick-or-treaters, stuff like that." Slowly putting the pen down, the older man cleared his throat. "Piper's in the kitchen right now, doing some cooking. I'm sure she'd be happy to see you guys if you stopped in for a minute and said hi or something."

"We'll go do that," Chris said. He rubbed his hands together and turned to Nathan, then looked toward the door not too far away that led into the hallway, where they would be going in order to get to the kitchen. "See you, Dad. Good luck on the papers." When he saw that Leo was getting up, he headed a little quickly toward the door.

Leo stopped, instead just shifting his weight and taking a seat again. "Yeah, thanks. Happy Halloween, guys. And happy birthday again, Nate."

"Thanks," Nathan said once again, before Chris led him out into the hallway, and then down into the kitchen.

When they stepped inside the sound of the sizzling food and the busy cooks caught both of their attention. Chris had barely ever come into his mother's kitchen, just because it was too hectic and crowded for him. Nathan stuck closely beside him, and from the look on his face he, too, seemed to think it was a little too crowded. A variety of rich smells lingered in the air, and steam rose toward the high ceiling, dissipating before it reached the top.

Now, where was his mom?

"Mom?" Chris called out. He stepped gingerly through the kitchen, moving around those who were cooking and trying to dodge those who were sliding around, picking up plates and glasses. He found his mother near the freezer, cooking up some kind of seafood, though he couldn't really guess by the smell. Whatever it was, it didn't smell all that bad. "Mom, hey," he said to her.

Piper turned around, a smile appearing on her face. "Hey there, guys. Happy Halloween."

"You, too," both boys replied. They shared a glance, and then Piper added, "And happy birthday to you, Nathan. Interesting birthday, Halloween."

Nathan chuckled. "Yeah, true. Thanks. Chris and I came to celebrate with a birthday dinner."

"Oh really?" Piper turned to her food for a moment in order to stir it within the pot. When she returned her attention to the two boys, she looked at her son. "I'll let the chefs know. Do you know which table you are?"

"We haven't actually been seated yet," Chris admitted, looking around him. "We orbed here into the office, just because traffic's a nightmare right now."

Piper chuckled. "Yeah, your dad and I had a hell of a time getting here to the restaurant, and that was just this afternoon. I can't imagine how much worse it's gotten throughout the evening…"

"Yeah. Listen…" Chris cleared his throat. "We're gonna go get a seat."

"—Would you cook the dinner, Mrs. Halliwell?" Nathan asked suddenly. Both Piper and Chris looked at him, and he laughed. "Sorry, I just…your food's so good. I like it the best."

"You already don't have to pay," Piper told him with a snort, and she smirked some. "So you don't have to flatter me. But if you want…"

"Please."

"Well…all right. I've got to finish this up, but after that I'll wait until I get your order. I'll let them know."

"Thanks."

Nathan smiled again, and without really thinking about it, he gripped Chris' arm and began tugging him away. Chris just gave his mom a brief hug before allowing himself to be taken out of the kitchen. Afterward he ushered his boyfriend into the restaurant, which was reminiscent of the one that he had heard his mother worked at back when she had first become a witch. It was much more modern, of course, with things like better food and better service. It was successful enough to bring in a good amount of money, so he knew that his mother had to be doing something right.

They were seated not too long after they stepped into the dining area, in one of the booths near the back of the restaurant. It was one of the quieter areas despite its location, simply because it was away from the hustle and bustle of the front area, and it wasn't in the middle, where one could pick up on all of the conversations going on around them. It gave them the kind of privacy that they both wanted.

Once at the booth, Chris leaned back and finally allowed himself to relax for the first time since earlier, when he and Nathan had found themselves in the little alleyway. There was a surprisingly large amount of people in the restaurant, given the day, and in a way Chris felt kind of bad about not being out there and trying to find demons. They always picked nights like this to attack, especially when their attacks were on inexperienced witches. That kept nagging him in the back of his mind, but he did his best to ignore it. He was tired of being selfless and doing things for them. Tonight was going to be about him and Nathan.

"So, what're you gonna order, birthday boy?" Chris asked.

"Dunno yet." Nathan tapped his fingers against the tabletop, eying the rest of the restaurant briefly. "Maybe some fish. Chicken. Steak. Potatoes. There's a lot of good stuff to ask for from the menu here…"

When the waiter came back with their drinks, Chris thanked him and started looking over the menu as well. There was almost _too_ much to choose from, and he always forgot that. As he almost never came here unless there was a good reason to, it took him a few minutes to fully look over the menu.

A chill suddenly ran down his back, making him twitch. Chris blinked.

"You all right?" Nathan asked him.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm okay," he replied, slightly confused. He looked around instinctively, because a chill always meant something was out of place. Nothing _seemed_ out of place…but the feeling still lingered. He wondered what it meant. Nathan looked concerned, though, and so pretended to shrug it off so that he didn't worry. "Just cold. You know how October is."

This seemed to be a good, placating answer, because Nathan laughed. Chris almost wanted to ask him if he could sense it, too, the fact that something felt weird. Maybe it was just him, though—after all, he had spent a good majority of his last few Halloweens hunting demons, so suddenly taking a break probably was screwing with his mind. That seemed to happen just about every time he tried to enjoy something not magic-related. He wasn't about to let it ruin his evening.

The two sat in silence while they figured out what they were going to order. Not too long thereafter, their waiter appeared at the table to write it all down, leaving them again in peace once he finished.

"Think you ordered enough, you pig?" Chris teased.

"What?" Nathan snorted. "I haven't eaten since this morning. Plus, your mom said it was free. It was mostly the stuff that comes with it that made it so much. Soup, salad, bread…all the good stuff."

"If you eat too much, I probably won't be able to orb you back, so you'd best be careful."

"_You'd_ best be careful, if you don't want to get a fist to your pretty face."

Chris smirked. "Ooh, threatening…"

After a while of bantering back and forth their food finally arrived, a delectable meal with several plates for the both of them. Given how hungry they both were, there wasn't much said between them while they ate, and whatever _was_ said, they said through body language and touches. By the end of the meal they were both stuffed, and were also a little riled up because of all their little kicks and the bumping of their hands.

Both of them were so absorbed in one another that neither noticed the strange man that was staring at them during their entire meal, as well as their way back to Piper's office, where Chris orbed them back to the manor.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Notes: All right peeps! This is the last chapter. It's a little shorter than the rest, but it's one giant scene, which is why. I hope you enjoy it as much as you did the rest, and I appreciate all of the comments about it :D I'm glad you all enjoyed it as much as you did. I really love this story. And Chris in general, but people already know that. Haha! Anyways, as always, don't own them but Nathan. Don't forget to review!

* * *

There were few lights on in the house, which was quiet and empty. Nobody must have been home. Chris looked at the clock; it was only nine. His siblings were probably still out. 

"Wyatt? Mel?" he called out from the foyer. Nobody came to his calls, and from the looks of it, neither of them were in the living room, the conservatory, dining room or the kitchen. And if they were upstairs, they probably would have come by now.

"Looks like we're alone!" Nathan said, reaching out to grip Chris' hand and pull him in for a kiss. "I'm tempted to have you orb us back to my room…"

"You want to go back to _your_ place when we have the manor to ourselves?" The darker haired boy raised an eyebrow. "You're crazy," he chuckled.

"What, you wanna make out down here in the foyer where everyone can see us?"

"No…I'll do you one better." Gripping Nate's hand, Chris orbed them upstairs into his room. It was brave, assuming that no one was in there, but he proved to be right; the lights were off and the door was shut, with no sign of Wyatt having been in there for a while. And he said that he hoped to not be back by the end of the night…

As Chris was still feeling riled up from the dinner, he made sure the door was locked before he went over to Nathan and began kissing him. It wasn't usually him who took the initiative, because he was more careful about these kinds of things, but without having to worry about people being around, he was much more free to let himself go and enjoy their being together.

Nathan's arms wrapped around Chris' neck while they kissed, and the darker haired one moved them somewhat closer to the bed, though he didn't push him onto it. They simply continued to kiss, with each passing moment deepening it until Chris' tongue was brushing over his boyfriend's lips. He could feel Nathan's hands working their way down his neck, brush along his collarbone and down his chest, until they found their way to the hem of his shirt. The two of them broke the kiss long enough to remove their coats, only to return to the position they had been in shortly beforehand.

Sufficiently flustered, Chris finally pushed Nathan back onto the bed and crawled on top of him afterward. They had been in this position once before, but because of a near mishap with Wyatt, they hadn't gotten go any further. It almost felt like he had been in this kind of position before, though, too, like an odd sense of déjà vu, just with someone else. He couldn't figure out why it felt that way, and thankfully the feeling was quickly extinguished by the overwhelming urge to be closer to Nathan. Chris pressed his body against the other boy's and broke their kiss so that he could brush his lips along his jaw, against his ear and down his neck. The feeling of Nathan writhing beneath him and of the lighter haired boy's fingers moving through his hair and up his back only egged him on further.

He was just about to start removing his shirt, his fingers gripping the hem of it, when he heard the sound of a very quiet _poof_ not too far away. That sound was_never_ followed by anything good.

Chris turned his torso around just in time to see someone in a black suit standing next to his closet. That disturbing sinking feeling came back to him, as well as the chill he had been feeling before. It was that man from before.

"Well, _this_ wasn't something I expected to see." With a small movement of his hands the man conjured a crossbow into his arms, pointing it at Chris. "A whitelighter involved with his charge? How interesting. Suppose I could get both of you with this if I tried, but I'll just go for_you_, for now…"

In the time that Chris managed to get his hand up to try and send the darklighter flying across the room the darklighter conjured up an arrow and shot him with it. It pierced through his chest, lodging itself deep into the right side of it. Chris cried out in pain and he fell over onto the bed, while Nathan stumbled to sit up.

"Chris!"

The darklighter laughed as he watched the scene unfold before him. He clearly wasn't very worried about Nathan, who was trying to get the arrow from Chris' body. The pain was so severe that Chris couldn't fight back. All he could do was grunt in response:

"No, don't! It'll make it worse!"

Nathan stopped almost immediately after he heard that, and he stared at the darklighter with a look mixed with contempt and anger on his face. It was at a time like this that he wished he had a better power than the one that he did. But that anger, that rage that he was feeling, it caused Nathan's power to activate itself anyways, and soon his body fell back onto the bed, lifeless, as his astral form appeared just beside the darklighter. In that moment of confusion Nathan blinked, but didn't waste any time. He kicked the darklighter hard in the side and watched as he fell over, stumbling to the ground with a loud grunt. The crossbow in his arms flew out of his hands and across the floor, but before the man in the black suit was able to get up Nathan grabbed the crossbow and was pointing it at him. He briefly looked back to the couch at his body and Chris, who was writhing on the bed and letting out quiet grunts and cries as he tried to move.

"Just _s-shoot_ him with it!" Chris spat out. He was holding his sides—the pain was immeasurably powerful, and he felt almost like he was going to throw up.

Without a second thought to it Nathan did exactly what Chris said, and he shot an arrow at the darklighter, who had just stood up. He let out an agonized yell as the arrow penetrated him, causing him to erupt into flames and to burst apart, leaving behind a scorch mark on the wooden floor.

Nathan watched the crossbow in his hands disintegrate before he began to feel lightheaded. Soon he found himself blacking out, only to reawaken on the bed beside Chris with a quiet gasp. It took him a moment to recuperate but when he did he sat up and reached out to rest his hand on Chris' side. There was a fine sheen of sweat covering his boyfriend's face, and it worried him.

"God, what do I do?" he asked, in a panic.

Chris groaned in pain. "I need to get…nngh, I need to get healed. But don't—"

"Wyatt! Wyatt!"

"No!" Chris yelled, but he hissed afterward. "God, wait, Nate, we need to pick everything up first. Don't c-call him. If Wyatt—if he—"

"Chris, now is _seriously_ not the time to be _freaking_ out about whether or not he's going to notice that we're dating," Nathan said. He looked up toward the ceiling, calling again, "Wyatt!"

Here Chris moved to try and sit up, but all he ended up doing was making the excruciating pain he was feeling even worse. He collapsed over on the bed, doubled over from the throbbing feeling pulsing through him, and gripped his stomach as tightly as he could.

"WYATT!" Nathan yelled loudly.

There was still no response. Nathan looked at Chris, who was trying not to writhe any more, for he knew that the more he moved, the quicker the poison ran through him.

"That's it," Nathan said. Chris wasn't sure what he was doing, but the lighter haired boy rested himself against the bed, focused on Wyatt, and then shortly after found himself feeling lightheaded once more.

When he awoke from his blackout this time he was standing in a party, though one that lacked enough light to make his appearance not all that noticeable. There were people dancing all around him, but he knew that Wyatt had to be nearby. That was who he had thought of when he astral projected. Sure enough, dancing not too far away was Chris' older brother, whose arm Nathan grabbed and who he led away from the crowd. Wyatt protested the entire way and almost shoved at him once they stopped moving.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Wyatt asked crossly. "I was dancing with her!"

"Yeah, well, there's more important things going on other than _dancing_ right now," Nathan snapped back. "Your brother's been _poisoned_." There was still a large group of people around them who would have likely found it odd if he said what had happened completely, and he figured Wyatt would understand him if he cut it down to that.

But Wyatt didn't get it at first, and instead looked kind of confused. "Wait, is this a joke for Halloween? Nate, you jerk, don't scare me like that!"

"I'm not kidding." Nathan could feel himself beginning to feel lightheaded again but he forced it to go away as best he could. "Look, we don't have much time. Chris was _poisoned_,Wyatt, and he needs your help. You need to orb back to the manor, and you need to _help_ him."

Wyatt's face fell. "Was it—" Nathan nodded before he could finish, and Wyatt, too, nodded knowingly. "All right. Where'd you pop in from? I need a place to go so I can orb without anyone seeing me."

"I just astral projected onto the floor. Nobody saw me, but they'll sure as hell see you. Go to the bathroom…that should work. Or outside."

"All right. I'll meet you back there."

Before Nathan was able to respond, something tugged at the spot just above his stomach and behind his bellybutton, making him hunch over slightly. It hurt, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He had very little time to think about it as he soon blacked out yet again, reawakening in his body with a gasp. Though he didn't open his eyes, he could hear Chris whimpering beside him.

Nathan reached out and gripped Chris' shoulder gently. The sheen of sweat on his lover's face had become much more noticeable. "I got to your brother. He's on his way."

"G-God, it hurts so bad…"

"Don't worry, he'll fix it. He'll heal it for you."

Shortly after he said that, a flurry of white-blue orbs came through the ceiling, and Wyatt's form appeared. He ran over to the bed and turned his brother over, who groaned out loudly from the pain. After pointing at the arrow, Wyatt then gestured toward the door, and the poisoned object disappeared in a flash of white-blue lights that flew across the room and landed against the wall.

"Not quite what I was aiming for, but it works." Wyatt hovered his hands over his brother's chest and held them there momentarily before they began to glow with a golden light. The golden glow disappeared after a moment, the wound in Chris' chest shrinking and vanishing as well. Wyatt furrowed his brow some. "You okay?"

"…Yeah, a lot better now, thanks." Chris sat up carefully and he pressed his hand against his chest. The pain was gone, but it still felt like something else was there. There wasn't physically so he didn't know what it was, and he tried to ignore it. "Sorry."

"No, don't worry about it," Wyatt said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You're my little brother." He chuckled. "It's my job to make sure you're safe, right?"

Although Chris didn't respond verbally he did nod, however faintly. Wyatt gripped his brother's shoulder.

"What the hell was a darklighter doing here?"

"It just isn't Halloween without a demon attack, is it?" Chris asked with a snort. Well, there was the token demon for the night, he thought.

"Yeah, but a darklighter? He must have been following you around for a while. You didn't notice?"

"I had a feeling at dinner," Chris explained. "Nathan and I came up here to grab something from my room, and he attacked."

"Well, thank God you're okay. Do you think that Mel would be?"

"She'd be calling for one of us if she wasn't."

Wyatt nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's true. If that's the case, then I'm gonna get back to my date. You don't mind, right?"

"No, get on back," Chris said, waving his hand. Before he was able to say anything else Wyatt orbed out of the room, leaving him and Nathan alone once more.

The two of them shared a look, and Nathan moved in to hug him. Neither boy said anything but there obviously wasn't much need. They hugged each other tightly.

"Thanks," Chris murmured against Nate's hair.

Nathan pulled back slowly, intertwining the fingers of one of his hands with his boyfriend's. "Well, looks like I finally saved you, too, huh?" he asked, a relieved sort of smile on his face.

Chris only chuckled, reaching out to nudge at the other boy's shoulder with his hand. "Looks like. You know, someone told me once that sometimes whitelighters need to lean on their charges. Guess I should believe that a little more now."

"This whole thing kind of sounds like an after-school special or something."

"Oh, _please_. I'd kill for that kind of normalcy sometimes."

"You know, you're so much like your mom it hurts."

Chris snorted.

That was the first time anyone had ever compared him to his _mother_.

But, he was okay with that.


End file.
